Mistaken Identity
by Pink Arrow Kagome
Summary: Kikyou is a famous model and Kagome is her younger sister. Inuyasha decides to kidnap Kikyou and try to trade her in for ransom money. But he kidnaps the wrong sister. Rating may go up. Inu/Kag
1. Introductions

Author's Note: Well, I know that I should probably finish Syaoran's Three Wishes before I start a new story….but I couldn't help myself! And, yes, this is an Inuyasha fiction rather than a CCS one. Well, I hope you like this story. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, just like I didn't own CCS. All characters in this story belong to Rumiko Takahashi.

Mistaken Identity

Chapter 1

The Deal

            "What do you think Mother?" Kikyou asked.

            "You look wonderful, dear," Mrs. Higurashi replied with a big smile on her face.

            Kikyou admired herself in the mirror for what seemed the hundredth time to Kagome. 'Of course she looks wonderful. She always looks wonderful. How could she look anything but wonderful? The day Kikyou doesn't look absolutely drop-dead gorgeous will be the day pigs can fly,' Kagome thought to herself as she flopped down onto her mother's bed. She had been waiting for ages to get approval on her own appearance from her mother, but she had been too preoccupied with making sure Kikyou looked perfect, as usual.

            Kagome looked down at herself. She was wearing a sky blue kimono with reddish-gold birds flying through the light pink cherry blossoms that were floating down from the collar all the way down to the hem of the robe. A dark purple obi (the little sash thing that goes around the middle of a kimono) was tied tightly around Kagome's waist, nearly choking her. She hated all of these fancy clothes she was forced to wear whenever she went out anywhere with her older sister. She remembered a conversation she had had with her mother not long ago.

"But why can't I just where my normal clothes to the dinner tonight?" Kagome grumbled as her mother pulled her obi even tighter.

"Because Kagome, dear, we don't want to embarrass your sister by dressing like bums now do we?" her mother asked with a smile on her face.

'Sure we do,' Kagome thought to herself. But aloud all she did was sigh and let her mother finish dressing her up.

But Kagome was used to it by now. Since Kikyou was the number one model in Japan, she had been forced to get used to it. Going to fancy parties or expensive dinners twice a week or so was beginning to feel like a normal routine.

Kagome looked at her older sister again. She really was pretty. Nobody could think otherwise. What with her long, flowing black hair that reached her lower back, and her soft creamy skin that looked like it had been kept indoors all her life. She reminded Kagome of a doll. Always perfect. 

The two of them had never been very close with eachother. Even when they were little, Kagome would want to go play outside while Kikyou would sit and sew or read a book in her room. Kagome would get average grades, but Kikyou would always get A+'s. Kagome would try skiing in the winter or surfing in the summer while Kikyou remained inside perfecting her beauty.

Actually, Kagome and Kikyou had looked a lot alike up until about 8th grade. At this point people began to notice differences between the two sisters. Kagome's skin was slightly tanned from being out in the sun all the time. Kagome's hair was more wavy and bounced when she walked. Kagome had a youthful look about her. Kagome was always too happy. Kagome was clumsy. Kagome was immature. Kagome was just an ordinary girl. Kikyou was completely different. Kikyou's skin was pale, almost like the moon. Kikyou's hair was straight and glossy. Kikyou never made a mistake. Kikyou was elegant. Kikyou was exotic. Kikyou was everyone's perfect angel. Kagome hated her sometimes.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            The limousine pulled up right in front of _The Sakura _which was the restaurant the Higurashis would be meeting some rich, important family that wanted Kikyou to be on the cover of their new magazine or something like that. Kagome always wondered why she had to go to these stupid things anyway. It's not like they concerned her at all. And besides, her little brother Souta didn't have to come. But Mrs. Higurashi explained that away saying that Souta needed to study the Higurashi Shrine in Tokyo where they used to live since he was the heir to the shrine. Kagome whished she had been able to stay at the shrine with Souta and her grandpa. But Mrs. Higurashi had insisted that she move to the huge mansion they had bought since Kikyou was so famous now. Kagome sighed and followed her sister towards the restaurant.

            As soon as Kikyou took her first step into the building, everyone gasped and stared at the beautiful young lady that had just entered their presence. But why shouldn't they stare? Kikyou looked amazing. She was wearing a silver kimono with tiny blue flowers decorating all of the edges. The obi was also blue, just a shade or two lighter than the flowers. On Kikyou, the outfit looked fit for a queen, but on Kagome it probably would have looked a dull gray rather than sparkling silver.

            'I must look like such a wanna-be next to her,' Kagome thought as she was led with her family to a nearby table that already had some other people sitting there. 'Hmph. These must be the people we're supposed to meet.' Kagome looked them over. They were all adults and all looked very boring. With yet another sigh, Kagome steeled herself for an evening of extreme boredom.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            "Oh come on Inuyasha. You and I both know that you aren't going to be able to pull this off," a man with short black hair in a pony-tail said reasonably.

            "Just watch and see Miroku. And when I'm rich, you won't be getting any of my money!" replied another man. But this man looked peculiar. He had long white hair and piercing golden eyes. And on top of his head, two furry little dog ears twitched and swiveled checking out every little sound.

            "You weren't going to give me any in the first place," the man called Miroku said with a smirk.

            The other man, Inuyasha, glared at this friend. "Still, you'll be sorry when everything works out perfectly."

            "With your luck, you'll be lucky if you're put in jail for only one lifetime. And when your plan does come crashing down all around you, I'm gonna laugh in your face," was Miroku's cocky reply.

            "I don't give a damn Miroku! But can I count on you to keep the police off my trail?" Inuyasha asked.

            "Fine. But only because I'm such a kind and generous person," Miroku said with a sigh. "But if you get caught, I was never a part of it."

            "Deal," and the two men shook hands.

Author's Note: Well, that was a really short chapter, the other ones should be longer than that. I hope you liked it, but let me know what you think by reviewing! The more reviews I get the faster the next chapter comes! Thanks! ^_^


	2. The Kidnap

Author's Note: Well, here's chapter 2! I'm so happy that you guys liked this new story. I'll do my best to update as regularly as possible, but if a chapter does come out late then that's cause my teachers are trying to drown us in homework right before summer break. But then when summer DOES come then I'll be able to get chapters out all the time! I'll just reply to my reviews and then on with the story!

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Little Chibi: Thanks for being my first reviewer! No, I never did write a story about CCS in Disneyworld….cute idea though.

Fox: Don't worry! You'll have your stories up on ff.net in no time!

Amarome: Yes, this is modern Japan, and I'll explain Inu's hanyou/human state later on!

Eevee: Thanks! I hope you like the new chapter.

Invisible Yu: Thanks for the encouragement. Keep your FROGS under control would ya?!? And don't worry 'bout Kag….life won't stay bad for her for forever!

VincentGeorge da Frog: Well, thanks for your opinion. Yes, I will finish my other story…probably over the summer.

Grace: I'm glad you liked it!

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Thanks to all of my reviewers! Enjoy the story!

**Mistaken Identity**

****

Chapter 2

The Kidnap

            Kagome looked at the clock and groaned. She had finished eating two hours ago, and those snotty rich people were still talking to Kikyou and her mother. How many times could you possibly complement someone in one night?!? Kagome cleared her throat and looked expectantly at her mother. "I'm not feeling well. If you'll please excuse me, I'll take a taxi home," she said as she stood up from the table. Her mother turned concerned eyes onto Kagome.

            "Do you want me to come home with you? How sick do you feel?" Kagome's mother questioned.

            Kagome smiled weakly. She could tell that her mother didn't really want to go back with her. She wanted to stay with her favorite daughter. She wanted to stay with Kikyou. "It's okay Mom, I'll be fine."

            Mrs. Higurashi smiled and handed Kagome some money for the cab driver. Kagome left without another word.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Inuyasha yawned as he banged his head against the steering wheel. Where was that little Kikyou bitch anyway? Miroku had told him that she was going to be at this restaurant tonight…but maybe he had been mistaken. Perhaps she was coming here tomorrow…? If that was the case, Miroku would be one dead policeman tomorrow. Suddenly, a young girl dressed in a blue kimono stepped out of _The Sakura_.

            She had long raven black hair and her kimono looked fancy. "This must be her. 'Bout damn time too," Inuyasha mumbled to himself. But inside, he was smiling. She wasn't even with anybody! This couldn't be any easier.

            He slowly inched his big yellow taxi over to the curb she was standing on. "Do you need a ride, Miss?" he questioned in the most polite voice he could muster. It was all he could do to not break into snickers when she gratefully nodded her head.

            "Please take me to the Higurashi mansion," the girl said. Inuyasha nodded, but he knew that wasn't where they were going.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~~

            Kagome sighed and looked outside the taxi window. They had been driving for awhile now, and she was beginning to wonder when they would get there. "Hey! Are we almost there yet?" Kagome asked in an exasperated tone of voice.

            She saw the driver up front smirk in the mirror positioned above and between the two seats. "Finally caught on didn't you? Finally realized that you aren't being taken to your safe little home. Finally saw the light, finally got it throught your thick head that I'm kidnapping you!" the man said with a sneer. "Certainly took you long enough. Guess you really are all looks and no brains, huh, Kikyou?" the driver snickered. But he wasn't prepared for Kagome's response.

            "That's it. THAT IS IT!!! If I hear that name one more time I am going to scream!" Kagome ranted.

            Now the driver looked as confused as ever. "What the hell are you talking about bitch? Your name is Kikyou! How can you…" but he was cut off by a piercing shriek coming from the back seat. Inuyasha cringed and flattened his dog ears to his head. "SHUT-UP!!" he bellowed while swerving along the road.

            Kagome closed her mouth and sat quietly, glaring at the cab driver. "Well I warned you didn't I? I don't want to hear that name EVER AGAIN! And my name is NOT Kikyou, that's my older sister. It's Kagome! Ka-go-me!"

            Inuyasha sat in shock. 'Does this mean I got the wrong girl?' Only one thing ran through his mind at that moment. 'Oh shit….."

            But it was also that moment that Kagome realized just exactly what the man had said. 'He's kidnapping me? Well,' Kagome looked at the man's muscular arms, 'I doubt I could run away from him. It seems that he would easily catch me. I'll wait and see what I can do tomorrow, besides I'm too tired right now anyway,' she thought with a sigh as she sailed off into slumber.

            'What am I supposed to do with her,' Inuyasha thought to himself. 'I already told her my plans, and I can't have her telling all of Japan, so I guess I'll just have to kidnap her anyway. Besides, she's related to Kikyou, isn't she? So I should still be able to trade her in for some amount of money,' at this point, Kagome began snoring. Inuyasha eyed her in the mirror, checking to make sure she really was asleep before he continued to drive.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Two hours later, they arrived at there destination: a little farmhouse on a hill in the middle of nowhere. Inuyasha grumbled to himself about how dark it was while hefting the sleeping girl up in his arms and carrying her up into the house. He was too tired to bother switching on any lights, so he simply plopped the girl, Kagome, onto the floor and eased himself onto the bed. He would worry about what to do with her in the morning….

Author's Note: Well, it was a lot shorter than I planned it on being, but I hope you liked it! I have a three-day weekend this week, so the next chapter should be out by Monday. Remember to review!


	3. New Faces

Author's Note: Hey minna-san! I'm back with chapter 2! Sorry for the delayed update, but I do have the whole story planned out in my story notebook so never fear! The story will be finished! I promise! Anyway, here we go!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, or anyone else created by Rumiko Takahashi….unless she decides to give them to me!

**Mistaken Identity**

Chapter 3

New Faces

            Kagome awoke shivering.  She reached to pull the covers more snugly around herself, only to discover that they weren't there.  Reluctantly, Kagome sat up and groggily recognized that she was on the floor.  Blinking her eyes a couple of times she saw a bed not but a few feet away from her.  She staggered up and stumbled over to the bed, collapsing onto its warmth with a happy sigh.  She vaguely noticed a warm body lying next to her.  So, wrapping the blankets around her torso, she happily snuggled in closer to the warmth.  It wasn't long before she drifted off into sleep once again.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Inuyasha cracked open an eye.  The sun was just rising above the hills and casting its yellow light across the land.  Inuyasha grumbled something incoherent while burying his face back into the pillow.  'At least the bed smells good,' he thought, breathing in deeply, 'Something like a mix between sunshine and roses.' Just as he was finishing up that last thought, the bed shifted and the springs creaked. 'What in seven hells was that?' Inuyasha thought to himself while bolting upright, now wide awake.  

It was then that he saw the girl cuddled up under his arm.  Her long black hair was spread out every which way and her chest was rising gently every time she took a breath.  He stared at her stupidly for a moment, trying to remember where she had come from when it hit him like a bulldozer.  This was Kikyou's sister who he had accidently mistaken for Kikyou last night and kidnapped.  With a groan he pushed her away from himself and swung his legs over the bed.  He moved towards the kitchen and began making himself a bowl of ramen chicken noodle soup.

            "What the fuck am I supposed to do with her?!?" Inuyasha muttered to himself while watching the water begin to boil. "It's not like I can just send her back home with a basket of fruit and hope she doesn't tell anybody! And then the very next day have her older sister snatched! Life sucks!"

            "Oh come on! Life can't be that bad. You're probably just looking at the bowl half empty," replied a feminine voice from behind him.

            Inuyasha spun around and in the process, knocked the pot of boiling water off of the stove and onto the floor. "SHIT!" he yelled as the burning liquid seeped towards his toes. He began to frantically dance around on his scorched feet while strings of cursing punctuated every stomp his foot made. Meanwhile, Kagome was laughing her head off. Inuyasha glared fiercely at her. "Are you going to sit there laughing all day, bitch? Or are you going to clean up this mess!" Inuyasha questioned angrily.

            Kagome crossed her arms indignantly. "You're the one who spilled it. Not me!" she retorted.

            "If you hadn't surprised me in the first place then I wouldn't have knocked it over!" Inuyasha responded. But Kagome had already up and left the room. Growling, Inuyasha threw a towel on the soggy floor and marched after Kagome. "Get your ass back here bitch! What makes you think you can…..just….," Inuyasha trailed off as he saw what she was doing.

            "Yes! You're a good little chicken aren't you? Aren't you?" Kagome squeaked in a baby voice while talking to the seven chickens pecking at the grass. They didn't really seem to be paying much attention to her, and just continued to thoroughly search the ground for bits of food. Kagome, of course, noticed none of this and continued chattering away at the plump fowl.

            "You aren't seriously talking to the chickens are you?" Inuyasha snickered with a huge sweatdrop on his head.

            Kagome glanced up at him. "Of course I am. They have feelings too you know!" Kagome then remembered that this was her kidnapper. "Hey, did you really kidnap me?" she asked curiously.

            "No, I just thought I would pick a lucky random girl and take them to a farm for vacation," Inuyasha responded in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

            Kagome smiled brightly at him and left the chickens in favor of the big horse standing at the edge of a fence a few yards away.

            Inuyasha was dumbfounded. 'Isn't she going to try to escape or at least throw a tantrum? Or something?' When he saw that she wasn't giving the fact that she was currently kidnapped a second thought he guessed not.

            Meanwhile, Kagome wasn't having much luck with the horse. He was all black with a long, wavy mane blowing in the wind. He had a white mark on his back that looked an awful lot like a spider. Whenever Kagome tried to get close to him, he snapped at her and kicked up his feet in anger. After several attempts with no positive results, Kagome gave up on him. Looking up, she saw that Inuyasha was still staring at her suspiciously. Kagome sighed and walked up to him.

            "What's your name again?" she asked curiously.

            "Why should I tell you?" Inuyasha taunted.

            "Fine then. If you won't tell me your name, I'll just have to come up with one of my own," Kagome thought for a moment before snapping her fingers, "I got it! I'll call you Balthazar!" (A/N: Those of you in my Language Arts class must forgive me for my lack of creativity!)

            "Keh!" Inuyasha snorted and crossed his arms.

            "And are these real?" Kagome exclaimed while standing on tip-toe and fondling his white doggy ears.

            "Watch it bitch!" cried Inuyasha as he swatted her hand away. "Yeah, they're real!"

            Kagome giggled as she watched his ears swivel back and forth. "They're adorable!" she squealed excitedly. But Inuyasha was no longer listening. "Hide," he murmured while shoving her into a pile of hay.

            "Watch it!" Kagome yelled, but her shout was muffled by the yellow straw. Peering out between the pieces of hay, Kagome could see two people walking up the path to the farm. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Inuyasha perched on the roof of the farmhouse. She took a double-take of that last realization and her eyes widened. "How in the world did he get up there?" Kagome whispered to herself. Shrugging, she turned her attention back towards the two approaching strangers.

            From what she could see, it was a man and a woman. The man had black hair pulled back into a short pony-tail. The girl's hair was also black, and it too was in a pony-tail, but a much longer one. Interestingly enough, she was carrying what looked like a giant boomerang on her back.

            "Meow," came a sound from above her.

            Kagome looked up and spotted a cream colored cat with blood red eyes and…was that two tails?!? The cat was kneeled down in a crouch on a shelf just above her head, eyeing the man and woman.

            "Here kitty, kitty, kitty," Kagome called. But the cat simply leapt away from her and bolted towards the woman, who caught her with a happy cry.

            "Good girl, Kirara!" cooed the woman as she stroked the purring cat. Kagome then saw Inuyasha jump gracefully off of the roof and land next to the man.

            "Damn it Miroku! Don't sneak up here like this again! I thought the police had found me already!" Inuyasha scolded.

            The man Inuyasha had called Miroku grinned in response. "That assumption isn't far from the truth now is it?" he questioned while pointing to his shiny, gold police badge.

            "Keh," Inuyasha responded.

            "Where's the girl?" the woman holding the cat asked.

            Inuyasha turned towards the barn. "You can come out now, bitch!" he called.

            Kagome stood up, picking straw from her hair and brushing down her clothing. "I have a name you know!" she grumbled irratibly as she approached the trio.

            Miroku snickered. "Inuyasha!" he crowed. "This isn't Kikyou!"

            Kagome's face turned red with anger. "Of course it isn't! And if you say that name one more time I think I'll just have to scream…" she left the threat hanging in the air. But Miroku was all giggles.

            "I just KNEW your plan wouldn't work!" he did a little happy dance. "Ha!"

            "Keh," replied Inuyasha, rather intelligently.

            "If you aren't…you know…then who are you?" asked the woman.

            Kagome smiled. "My name's Kagome! What's yours?"

            "Sango," replied the lady, "and this is Kirara," she stated while gesturing towards her cat. "So, how do you like my farm?"

            "This farm belongs to you?" Kagome questioned.

            "Yes, it was my father's, but he died," Sango stated in an even voice.

            "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bring up back memories…" Kagome said quickly, and she hung her head.

            "No, it's all right. Really. It was a long time ago," Sango reassured her. "Come on, let's go inside. Seeing as you'll probably be staying here for awhile, I suppose I had better explain to you all the chores that need to be done around her!"

            The two women walked inside while Miroku and Inuyasha remained by the barn. "So what do you plan on doing with her?" Miroku asked probingly.

            Inuyasha smirked. "Same thing as I was with Kikyou. I'll send her family a ransom note, and then trade her in for money. She is Kikyou's sister, so I should still be able to get something for her."

            Miroku sighed. "You're hopeless," he declared while shaking his head. "Come on, let's go see if the beautiful ladies need any help!"

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            After going through a list of every thing that needed to be done at the farm, Sango and Miroku left.

            "We'll come back in a few days! Just to make sure everything's going okay!" Sango called over her back as she and Miroku headed down the road.

            "Thanks Sango! It was nice meeting you!" Kagome yelled back as she turned to go inside. The sun had already set long ago, and the stars were out and shining. Kagome sighed as she thought about her family. 'I wonder if they even know I'm gone yet,' she thought to herself before shaking her head and entering the house. Inuyasha was sitting in front of the fire with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. Kagome went up and sat next to him.

            "So…" she began, trying to work up her courage.

            "So what?" he grunted.

            "When will I be able to go home?" Kagome asked.

            Inuyasha cracked open his left eye and peered at her through the slit. "You'll go home when your family agrees to the ransom demand," he answered before closing his eye again. Kagome nodded in acceptance.

            "I'm going to bed now," she stated and headed off towards the bedroom. It was ten minutes before Inuyasha realized that there was still only one bed.

            "BITCH! Get back here!" he called. "You can sleep on the couch! I'm the one in charge here! I get the bed!" But he got no response. Muttering to himself, he stood up and stomped towards the bedroom. Slamming open the door he saw that Kagome was already asleep. He glared at her sleeping form for several minutes before sighing and going over his options. He could either sleep on the lumpy couch and wake up with back pains the next day or sleep in the bed…with Kagome. He opted for choice three: shove Kagome out of the bed and get it all to himself. But just as he was about to push her, she gripped the blankets tightly in her fists and wrapped them around herself like a twisted puzzle. Growling, Inuyasha tried to separate her from the only quilt in the whole house, but had no luck. Well, he wasn't about to freeze to death that night just because some human bitch wouldn't share the covers. Therefore, he yanked some of them over his own body and put as much distance between himself and the girl as possible. Soon after, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note: PHWEW! Boy that was a long chapter! For me it was anyway! Well, I hope you liked! Please remember to review! ^_^

              
  



	4. Gone Exploring

Author's Note: Hey guys. SORRY for the delayed update…I've been so incredibly busy lately! Well, in case you haven't figured out my updating policy yet, I _try_ to update once a week…usually on Sunday.  Then again, summer vacation just started so I'll be able to update more often now…hopefully! Sorry for not writing my replies to the reviews I had received for my last chapter. And I'm not going to in this chapter either. I personally feel that in the amount of time it takes to write out responses, I could be typing up the actual chapter. But if you guys want responses then I will give 'em to ya! You guys just have to let me know. And I had a few complaints about Kagome's reactions towards being kidnapped. My answers would be: 1. Cool it people! The plot just started, I know Kagome's personality as well as the next fan…and I'm doing my best! 2. It's my story and I can make her OOC if I want to. So BLAH! *sticks out tongue* On with the story!

**Mistaken Identity**

Chapter 4

_Gone Exploring_

            Kagome awoke to the twittering of the birds outside.  But she was so comfortable that she didn't bother to open her eyes.  She smiled happily and snuggled even deeper into the arm tightly wrapped around her waist.  Wait, arm wrapped around her waist?!?! Her eyes bolted open and she quickly turned her head to see a sleeping Inuyasha snoring softly.  Kagome remained frozen, like a deer caught in headlights.  'What am I supposed to do?' she thought to herself frantically. 'I'll have to try and get out of here before he wakes up, but he looks so kawaii when he's asleep! Just like a little kid…' Kagome shook her head, scattering these unwanted thoughts before gently easing away from his arm.  Right when she was almost out and her head was just under the crook of his armpit, Inuyasha suddenly stiffened.  He tightened his grip slightly on poor Kagome's neck in a headlock.

            "But I like wearing the pretty dress Mommy," Inuyasha mumbled dazedly as he shifted positions in his sleep. "It makes me look bootiful."

            Kagome snorted while trying to stifle a shriek of laughter. After regaining her composure, she finished her task of escaping Inuyasha's death grip. Once up, she headed towards the kitchen and was about to start making breakfast when it occurred to her that this was her big chance. What with her kidnapper sleeping, she could easily slip out and make a run for it. She knew that was the smart thing to do. But she also knew that she wanted to make her family worry about her. She wanted to make them squirm. She wanted to have all of their attention, if not only for a little while.

            So, with that thought in mind, Kagome went outside to gather some eggs from her friends, the chickens. They were still sleeping, so Kagome quietly slipped into the chicken coop and crept towards the nearest chicken. Cautiously, she reached out a hand and was just about to grab an egg, when said egg's mother awoke. The chicken blinked beady eyes at Kagome who smiled nervously. "Nice chicken…," Kagome squeaked. The chicken glared heartily at her before throwing back its head and giving a shrill call. "Eeep!" Kagome cried as she bolted out of the chicken coop. The chickens followed angrily, squawking loudly and flapping their wings in a blind rage. Kagome threw herself across the lawn and towards the house, mad chickens close behind. Throwing open the door, she saw Inuyasha lying on the ground and laughing insanely.

            "I see," he wheezed in between each burst of laughter, "that you and those chickens ---laugh--- are really ---snort--- good friends!" he crowed.

            Kagome grumbled something incoherent, "Shut-up," she muttered. Inuyasha only laughed harder.

            "Well, at least I was _trying_ to get us something for breakfast!" she muttered. "Now what are we supposed to eat?" she asked Inuyasha pointedly.

            Inuyasha grinned and tossed her a pack of instant ramen.  "And make it snappy, girl!" he ordered with a smirk. "I don't have all day." Kagome flushed.

"Well at least I don't go cross-dressing in my dreams!" she snickered.

Inuyasha responded with a very heartfelt "Keh" but Kagome detected a very faint blush on his cheeks.

 Grinning to herself, she twirled on her heel, grabbed a pot and began to make the soup. Inuyasha put his feet on the table and watched her. Smells of chicken broth floated around his nose lazily, teasing him. "Are you done yet?" he questioned impatiently.

            "Almost…" Kagome responded as she gave the ramen a final stir. Then she transported it from the pot to a bowl and put two ice cubes in it to cool. Grabbing a spoon, she set the soup on the table and began to eat. 

            "What the hell do you think you're doing, bitch?!?!" he roared angrily as he made a lunge for the soup. Kagome squealed and grabbed the soup, running to the opposite side of the table. Inuyasha growled and chased after her. Around and around the table they went until eventually, they both just stopped and glared at each other from opposite ends. Kagome was the one who broke the staring contest by quickly grasping her spoon and shoving the rest of the ramen noodles into her mouth in one huge bite. Inuyasha sputtered before glaring even harder at her. Kagome smiled good naturedly at him and patted her stomach.

            "That was good," she said happily while indicating the empty bowl. After making her statement, she turned and headed outside towards the barn. Inuyasha crossed his arms and sat stubbornly.

            'Who does that girl think she is?" he thought to himself as he eyed the door. 'I should put her in her place!' With that thought in mind, he went out to retrieve her. As he stepped outside he heard someone singing and followed the sound of the voice.

            "I want to change the world! Kaze wo kakenukete, nani mo…." Kagome sang loudly. She had a very pretty voice…except for when she went off-key. Inuyasha stood in the doorway of the barn and watched Kagome. She was feeding the horse. Sango had said his name was Naraku. Inuyasha cleared his throat and Kagome turned her head towards him.

            "Yes?" she asked.

            Inuyasha began to recite the speech he had planned. "Okay, here's the deal. I'm the boss around here. Got it? That means you listen to…me…" he trailed off as he saw that Kagome had wandered over to the chickens again. "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!?!" he shouted angrily. Kagome shook her head no as she continued to sit with the chickens. Suddenly, she jumped up in excitement.

            "I've got it!" she squealed excitedly. She then did a little happy dance while jabbing her finger at one chicken in particular. "Her name can be Sarah!" Inuyasha sweat dropped.

            "Now you're naming the bloody birds?" he sneered.

            "Yep! The others are named Jenny, Amy, Binny, Maria, Jesse, and Erin," Kagome ticked off while pointing to each individual bird whenever she said their name. Inuyasha snickered before remembering what he had needed to tell her.

            "Now listen!" he began. "I'm the boss here, so that means I make the rules. And those rules are that you listen to me! Now, I'm going to go check out our surroundings, and you are going to go clean the house," he commanded. But Kagome had other ideas.

            "Geez, your sexist!" she complained. "For your information, I'll only clean the house if you do part of it. You're living in it just like I am! And secondly, I happen to like the outdoors! Besides, I've been wanting to go exploring 'round here!" Kagome exclaimed happily. "So when do we leave?"

            Inuyasha blinked. "I'm the one that'll be doing the scouting. You're going to stay here."

            Kagome shook her head. "I thought you said that your ears were real! But obviously they don't work very well, either that or they're just there for show, because as I said earlier: I…am…going…with…you," she spoke slowly and carefully to make sure that he understood each and every word. Inuyasha ground his teeth together before finally giving in.

            "Fine! But you better stay with me and don't get any ideas about trying to escape!" he grumbled. Kagome smiled brightly and took off in a random direction. All Inuyasha could do was follow.

            The two of them went up the hill that the farmhouse was situated on and went back down the other side. When they reached the bottom, Kagome saw a large forest to her left and wide open fields full of flowers to her right. Straight ahead she saw more hills.

            "Let's just keep going forward," Inuyasha decided. Kagome nodded and they walked towards the first hill. They continued going up and down the hills until they had gone over three of them. Up ahead, Kagome and Inuyasha saw the biggest hill yet. It towered over them like a mini mountain. Kagome gawked at it before noticing that Inuyasha was already part way up the hill.

            "HEY! Wait for me!" she cried and ran to catch up with him. Inuyasha looked back to see Kagome struggling to catch up. He shook his head and waited for her to get even with him. Then he crouched down in front of her.

            "Get on my back," he commanded Kagome as she stood panting next to him.

            "What?" she asked cautiously, wanting to make sure she had heard him correctly.

            "You're too slow, at this rate we'll never get anywhere. Get on my back," he repeated. Uncertainly, Kagome clambered onto his back and gripped his shoulders. "Hold on tight!" he grinned slyly as he took off at full speed. Kagome shrieked, first in terror, then in sheer delight.

            "Faster!" she cried happily as they sped up the hill at an alarming rate. Kagome laughed. "It's like flying!" she exclaimed delightedly. Inuyasha smiled. For some reason, he liked making her happy. He liked the way she clung to his back. The way she laughed. The way she smiled. He shook his head, 'No,' he thought to himself. 'I will not like her.' They reached the top of the hill and Inuyasha quickly dropped Kagome, ignoring how much he missed the warmth of her body against his.

            "Wow," he heard Kagome whisper in awe. He looked to see what had caught her attention and when he saw it his eyes bugged. Stretched out in front of them was a huge sparkling lake. A mother duck and her babies were swimming in the middle. Tall grass surrounded the sides except for a tiny path that led down to the water. A turtle's head popped up every now and then. "It's beautiful," Kagome murmured softly. Inuyasha nodded in agreement.

            They began the steep descent to the bottom of the slope: Inuyasha in the lead, choosing the fastest path and Kagome behind him, selecting the safest route. The sun beat down hotly overhead and he could hear Kagome's ragged gasps for breath.

            "We're almost there," he called over his shoulder. But he got no response. Expecting at least a sigh of relief, he stopped and turned. What he saw made his heart skip a beat. Kagome was lying in a crumpled heap on the ground. Her head was face-down and he could see a large bump beginning to form where she had hit her head on a rock.

            "Kagome!" he shouted as he leaped to her side. Lifting her head, he cradled it in his lap, shaking her gently at first but getting rougher by the minute. "Wake up, Kagome! Wake up!" he cried in panicked desperation. But Kagome continued to lie still. Inuyasha gave an anguished yell and cursed the heavens. He picked up the girl and raced back to the farmhouse as fast as he could go.

Author's Note: Bwa ha ha ha ha! Cliffhanger!! Hopefully I'll update faster next time than I did this time. Well, please remember to review! I'm so happy with all of the wonderful comments I've gotten. Thanks minna-san! Until next time!


	5. Three Questions

Author's Note: Well, I'm back with the next chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! Ack, and I'm so sorry for the long wait! Please forgive me…? *looks hopefully at reviewers* *sees the stern looks* Eh, heh heh…..I'll try to do better about updating, okay? *reviewers nod and smile happily before toddling off to read the next chapter*  ^_^  And somebody was wondering about why I was picking on Kagome so much. I know it might SEEM like I'm really being mean to her and making her sound ugly and unloved and all that…but I really do like her, and I also really, REALLY hate Kikyou. So don't worry! It's the way this story needs to play itself out. Hope you enjoy!

**Mistaken Identity**

Chapter 5

_Three Questions_

            Kagome groaned. Her head hurt. A lot.

            "Mama?" she called weakly, still keeping her eyes closed. But when she got no response she called again, louder this time. "Mama?!" This time, there was an answer. But it most certainly wasn't her mother…

            "I am not your mother wench!" growled a deep masculine voice. See? The voice had told her itself that it wasn't her mother. Well in that case, who was it?

            "Souta?" she guessed, her eyes remaining shut with sleepiness. She heard a sigh.

            "Geez! You must have really hit your head hard, Kagome!" the voice-that-wasn't-her-mother-and-obviously-not-her-brother-either snorted, but she could sense a hint of concern peeping out behind all of that macho attitude. Kagome slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was in a bed, not her own. Her gaze moved up and she saw wooden, brown planks instead of a solid white ceiling like she was used to.

            'Where am I?' she thought to herself. Then she turned and saw the young man sitting next to her. She took in his long, white hair, his twitching doggy ears, and his golden eyes. Suddenly, realization struck her like a slap in the face.

            "Balthazar?" she asked groggily while pushing herself up into a sitting position. Inuyasha sweat dropped.

            "Who the hell are you calling Balleesar?!?" Inuyasha snarled angrily, folding his arms across his broad chest.

            "You," replied Kagome evenly. She was massaging her aching head with one hand until her fingers reached a large bump right at the very top of her head, and a purple bruise just below her right cheek. "Ow!" she cried in pain. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" she chanted.

            "You'll just have to put up with it until tomorrow," Inuyasha replied gruffly without even looking at her.

            "Tomorrow?" Kagome questioned. "What happens tomorrow?"

            "We're going to go into town and get some supplies!" Inuyasha responded. "We're running low on fresh water…and ramen, come to think of it. Plus, since you seem to have clumsily fallen yesterday, we'll have to get some medical items as well."

            Kagome smiled. She would get to see people again! Crowds of people! Sure, it had only been, what, three days that she had been in Balthazar's 'custody'. But already she missed seeing bunches of busy strangers going about their own individual business. "What are you working on?" she asked Inuyasha who was busily cutting up a newspaper.

            "Your ransom note," he said while snipping neatly around a letter 'u'. Curiously enough, he wasn't using scissors to do the cutting with either. He was using his fingernails! But, now that Kagome had the chance to look at them, they seemed more like claws.

            "You should really think about cutting your nails," she recommended conversationally. Inuyasha glared at her. "Just a suggestion!" she put her hands up in defense. He went back to what he was working on. "So, Balthazar," Inuyasha faltered on his project when Kagome mentioned his 'name', "how much am I worth?"

(A/N: Okay guys, I really don't know Japanese money very well. So bear with me please. I'm clueless with what would be a high or low amount of yen, so please don't get mad at me!)

            "Well, right now you're at 10,000,000 yen, (A/N: can't go wrong with high numbers!) but if you continue to be so damn annoying then I'll just keep going lower and lower simply to get rid of you!" he grumbled. Kagome was about to argue, but remembered her 'family plan'. Surely if they spent too much money on getting Kagome back, then they wouldn't have enough money to keep Kikyou's huge mansion. Then they would move back to the shrine and be the happy, well…happy enough, family that they had been before Kikyou had been 'discovered'.

            "No! Don't lower it! I'm worth more than that you baka!" she scolded.

            "Keh," Inuayasha muttered, but kept the price as it was.

            Kagome beamed at him before pushing the covers back and sliding out of bed onto her unsteady legs. Staggering slightly she wandered out of the room and towards the front door.

            "Oi! Where do you think you're going?!?" Inuyasha yelled.

            "To try to get us some eggs for breakfast!" Kagome called back. Inuyasha shook his head and sighed. That girl was very persistent. You would think that she would just give up on those damn chickens…..he shrugged. Oh well.

            Meanwhile, Kagome hummed to herself as she strolled out towards the chicken coop. 'Hopefully I'll have better luck getting some eggs this time!' she thought to herself as she neared the small building. As she crouched down and crawled inside, she was greeted by six chickens. Wait…SIX chickens? Weren't there seven? Then the stench of blood reached her nostrils as it drifted off of a pile of scattered feathers. Kagome blinked at the mess before letting out a scream.

            "NOOOO!" she hollered to the world. "Why?!?"

            Inuyasha heard her yell of distress and ran to her aid. "What is it?" he gasped as he hurtled towards her. "What happened? Are you okay?" he questioned breathlessly. Then he saw the tears in Kagome's eyes. "Er…don't cry," he stammered. Kagome leaped into his arms and sobbed loudly onto his shoulder. Awkwardly, he wrapped a hand around her back and patted her head mechanically. "It's okay. But, what happened? Did something hurt you?" he couldn't smell any of her blood anywhere…although there WAS a smell of blood…

            "It's Amy!" she cried tearfully.

            Inuyasha's face went blank. "Who the hell is Amy?" he asked bluntly. Kagome glared at him

            "The chicken! Baka, the chicken!" she howled angrily. "Poor, innocent Amy was too young to die!" Inuyasha resisted to the urge to break out into a fit of insane laughter. She was this upset over one measly chicken?!?! This was just too much…

            "Listen Kagome. I understand that…you and, uh, Amy or whatever were…close…and all. But it WAS just a bird, you know," he explained while keeping an unnaturally strained straight face.

            Kagome let out another sob of unhappiness. "Oh Amy! At least you've gone on to a better place!"

            Inuyasha couldn't help himself. "Yeah, I'm sure she's up in chicken heaven right now!" he grinned. Kagome glared at him again. "Unless that is," he chortled, "she had murdered any other chickens in her life. Or maybe she had an affair with her sister's rooster or something!" He was in tears of laughter right now. "Then she'd be down in chicken hell with all of Hitler and Hussein's chickens!" At that last remark, even Kagome found it hard to continue her evil glaring at couldn't resist a snort of laughter.

            "You're so mean!" she complained between laughs of her own. She hit him over the head rather half-heartedly before surrendering herself to the peals of laughter wracking her body.  The two finally collapsed onto the floor in a fit of giggles. Once they had finally calmed down, Kagome sat up and dried her eyes. She sighed happily.

            "Are you read for the big adventure of the day?" she asked him slyly. He gulped.

            "Kagome…I'm not quite sure I like that look in your eye…" he replied nervously.

            Kagome laughed giddily again and headed off pointedly towards the stables. Towards the one horse Sango's farm had. Towards Naraku.

            "You're nutty!" Inuyasha ranted as he scrambled to his feet and ran after her. "You aren't seriously thinking of riding that wild horse are you?" he asked her.

            "You're gonna try too aren't you?" she looked up at him. "Unless you're too scared!" 

Inuyasha growled, "Hmph! Not like some stupid horse is gonna scare me!" he crossed his arms.

            "Okay then!" Kagome beamed happily. "Whoever can stay on him the longest wins!" Inuyasha really didn't have a choice.

            "Wins what?" Inuyasha asked automatically. Kagome thought for a moment.

            "I know! How about this: the winner gets to ask the loser three questions, and the loser has to answer them. No matter what they are," Kagome explained the rules of the prize.

"Fine," Inuyasha grudgingly agreed. Kagome's smile widened. "You go first!" and she shoved him towards the horse.

            "What?!" he cried. "This was YOUR idea!" but he still went forward. "What about the saddle and bridle?" he whined.

Kagome shrugged. "I've never ridden a horse before, so I don't know how to put all that fancy stuff on. But it can't be that important!" she assured him.

            "Crazy bitch," he grumbled to himself as he sidled up to the big horse. He looked it up and down: from its long, black legs to its huge, white, spider-shaped scar to its dark, knotted mane to its coal-black, glaring eyes.

            "This'll be easy!" he called back arrogantly, but inside he really wasn't quite sure. 'Oh well,' he thought to himself, 'I can't back down now!' With that final thought in mind, he stepped up to Naraku's fenced in field and swung open the gate.

 Once he had stepped in, he closed the gate with a click and made his way over towards Naraku. As he neared the horse, Naraku snorted and pawed the ground angrily with his foot; his eyes burning with hatred. Inuyasha reached the horse and quickly flung his right leg over the horse's back. He barely had time to grab a fistful of mane before Naraku let out a wild shriek of anger and hurled himself around the field. The horse tossed and turned, spinning in circles rapidly with Inuyasha just barely managing to hang on. With a might rear, Naraku stood up to his full height on his hind legs and shook himself violently, flinging his passenger off of his back very effectively. 

Inuyasha soared over the fence and crashed into Kagome who toppled over under

 his weight. Inuyasha lay panting on the ground, Kagome a few feet away from him.

"Are you okay?" she asked him while rising from her sprawled position up into a

crouch. Inuyasha glared at her.

"You!" he ground out between his teeth. "You are a nut!" Kagome grinned

nervously. "That horse is berserk! Why does Sango even have that thing?" he raged while jabbing his finger in the general direction of Naraku.

            "Well," Kagome began thoughtfully, "Sango said that they had been trying to sell Naraku for awhile now, but nobody wants to buy him."

            "Gee, I wonder why," Inuyasha muttered to himself. "And now it's your turn!" he grinned mischievously at her and indicated towards Naraku who was still shooting death-glares at them. Kagome gulped.

            "Oh joy," she sighed. 'Me and my bright ideas,' she thought sarcastically to herself. 'Maybe I'll get lucky and only break a couple of bones…' she grimaced.

            "What are you waiting for, Little-Miss-Enthusiastic?" he snickered. "Don't you want a turn to ride on the nice horsie? It's the big adventure of the day, remember!" he urged innocently. Kagome glared daggers at him.

            "I'm going, I'm going!" she assured him. Inuyasha smirked knowingly.

            Kagome slowly neared the giant horse. Now that she had a chance to look at him up close, she could see that he really was a pretty mean looking horse. What with his bared teeth and ears flattened to his head and menacing eyes….

            Kagome opened the gate and closed it behind her. She walked up to the horse and carefully laid a hand on his side. She slowly stroked his back, attempting to get the horse to calm down and maybe like her a little bit. Fat chance. The horse only snapped at her and snorted angrily. Giving up, Kagome gently swung her leg over Naraku's back and sat: tense and ready, humongous fistfuls of black mane clutched in her hands.

1 minute went by…

            Kagome remained in her crouched position, not daring to slacken her desperate grip on the horse.

2 minutes passed…

            Kagome gathered more of Naraku's mane in her hands.

3 minutes…

            Kagome squeezed her knees together, urging the horse onward, but Naraku didn't move.

4 minutes…

            Kagome reluctantly relaxed her hold on his mane and sat easily on his back.

5 minutes…

            "This isn't so bad!" she called happily towards Inuyasha. At that precise moment, Naraku leaped to life and poor Kagome just managed to fling her arms around his neck and hold on for dear life. Naraku bucked and reared and ran like a mad-horse…which, he was. Kagome clung to him like a leech, frozen to his back in petrified fear. Naraku lurched his body this way and that but Kagome's grip refused to loosen its rock-like hold. Eventually, Kagome's legs became heavy and her arms were exhausted. Her body couldn't take this kind of abuse anymore. Without thinking, she hurled herself off of the horse's back and over the fence, landing rather ungracefully on her rump. Inuyasha gawked at her.

            "Two minutes!" he announced. Kagome's mouth dropped open.

            "That's it!??!" she cried. "I was only on that bloody horse for two minutes?!" Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow at her.

            "I'm not going to count those five minutes in which the horse did absolutely nothing," he grinned smugly before Kagome smiled even wider.

            "That means," she began, "that I won." Inuyasha's grin faltered before he forced himself to nod.

            "Keh," he muttered. Kagome threw herself down onto the soft grass and stared up at the clouds. Inuyasha joined her, their heads meeting in the middle as they gazed up at the blue sky.

            "Look!" Kagome pointed at a particularly fluffy cloud, "It looks just like a bunny!" Inuyasha twisted his head this way and that trying to see what Kagome had seen.

            "Looks more like a cloud to me," he teased. Kagome mock-glared at him before turning her eyes back up to the sea of clouds.

            "You have to use your imagination, silly," she explained.

            "Okay then…that one," Inuyasha indicated towards another cloud, "looks like a dead cockroach," he proclaimed proudly.

            Kagome laughed. "Very original," she congratulated. Their eyes met and they exchanged happy smiles before Kagome blushed and looked away. "So, I wonder what I should ask you," she mused.

            "Let me guess," Inuyasha began, "You want to know why I kidnapped you or something like that," he guessed wildly.

            "Well…yes, I do. But that's not what I'm going to ask first. I have a much more important question!" she informed him. Inuyasha looked at her curiosly.

            "First question: what in the world is your real name?" she asked. Inuyasha smirked.

            "That's more important than something about your kidnap?" he asked.

            "Well, I'm stuck with you for awhile, so I'd at least like to be able to call you something other that Balthazar…" Kagome told him.

            "'Bout damn time too!" he agreed. "My name," he said, "is Inuyasha."

            Kagome smiled happily. 'What an interesting name. I like it a LOT better than Balthazar though…'

            "Now for question number two! Let's see," she thought for a moment before snapping her fingers and looking pointedly at Inuyasha's ears. "Why," she asked, "do you have those adorable doggy ears?"

            Inuyasha shivered. This was it. She was never going to look at him the same way again. He took a deep breath to steady himself. 'Keh,' he thought to himself, 'I don't care what she thinks!'

            "Well," he began, "I…am a hanyou," he declared. Then he winced, waiting for the outburst he just knew would come…except it didn't.

            "A what?" Kagome asked, obviously confused.

            "A hanyou," he explained, "It means I'm half demon." He glanced up at her, expecting to see disgust dripping from her eyes. But it wasn't. "Aren't you scared?" he asked her.

            Kagome shrugged. "No, not really. If you had wanted to hurt me then you would have done so already. And besides, I knew it had to be something like that. Although at first, I had thought you had gotten plastic surgery or something like that. But being part demon is much cooler!" Inuyasha flashed her a happy smile. Kagome was taken aback. She hadn't seen him look this happy yet. She grinned back.

            "I suppose it all started with my father," Inuyasha said, "he was a great demon. With his first mate, who was also a full demon, they had my half-brother, Sesshoumaru. But then he met my mother, who was a human. He left his first mate in favor of my mother. Together they had me, half demon and half human. Because of this, I don't really fit in with either crowd." Kagome looked at him sadly, 'He must have been an outcast all his life,' she thought.

            "But my dad had a large fortune. He lived in a huge mansion until he died. And in his will he left the house and all of his riches to whichever son had the most money at any point and time. This way, the house would be shifting ownership often, or so he thought. But Sesshoumaru hates humans. And since I'm half human, he hates me. Sesshoumaru is also a wealthy business man, he's doing almost as good as my father did, while I can't get a job any better than a taxi driver! Since he owns the house he threw me out. That's why I planned to kidnap Kikyou," Inuyasha saw Kagome shudder at the mention of her sister's name, "I needed quick money, lots of quick money, so that I could get the house back. But I kidnapped you instead, accidently, but since you ARE Kikyou's sister then you should be worth something…" he trailed off.

            After recovering from hearing her sister's name, Kagome smirked triumphantly, "HA!" she crowed, "You told me why you kidnapped me, why you have dog ears, AND gave me a family history lesson all in one question," she winked at him, "I didn't know you could be such a chatter-box!" Inuyasha frowned to himself.

            'I can't believe I told her all that!' he scolded himself mentally. 'But somehow, it had felt good…to tell her. Maybe…she's different?' he shook his head. 'No!' he reprimanded himself firmly, 'They're all the same!'

            "Well, I don't know what else to ask…so I guess I'll just save my third question for later!" she announced.

            "Keh," Inuyasha replied in a flustered voice. He stood up, "I'm going inside, we still haven't had breakfast you know," he complained.

            Kagome looked up at him, "I'll be in shortly," she informed him. He nodded and headed inside. Kagome needed to think for a moment.

            "Well," she said aloud to no one in particular, "this certainly puts a swing on things. Now I have three perfectly good reasons to NOT run away…One: to worry my family. Two: to make my family lose all of they're money so that we can move back into the shrine. Three: so that Inuyasha can get his house back. Well, I suppose staying with Inuyasha and not making a getaway helps everybody. Well, at least it helps Inuyasha and I." she sighed before smiling brightly. "I guess that means I'm staying!" Then she got up and headed into the house to help Inuyasha make a very later breakfast.

Author's Note: Woah. That's the longest chapter I've ever written! *looks proud of herself* Hope you guys liked it! And because it was so long, I was lazy and didn't go back and look for grammatical errors. So please forgive me if there are any typos! Oh, and I'm sorry to say it, but I'm going to be on vacation in Florida for the next two weeks. So don't expect an update for awhile. But, to make up for the delay, I'll do my very best to get a long chapter out within a day or two of my return! Okay? Thanks for reading! PLEASE remember to review! I love all of the nice advice and praise everyone's been giving me! I love you all! ^_^


	6. A Missing Higurashi

Author's Note: Hey guys! Well, I'm back from vacation and I'm so so so so sorry for making you guys wait so long for this chappie! Anyway, this is an extra chapter (as well as a shorter chapter) that I hadn't had planned in my original layout of this story. But Rie-chan maybe an excellent point that I should do some writing about what's going on at Kagome's home with Kikyou and Mrs. Higurashi and to see how they're taking it. Normally, I would just add this little part in with the normal chapter that I had planned to come up next…except said chapter is really long. So, this way you guys get your chapter faster since it's shorter and it is kind of like a bonus because I hadn't thought to do one like this. So everybody can thank Rie-chan! ^___^

Oh, and I also want to thank Wei-cool for sending me such a nice review. It made me feel so happy that you liked my story! In fact, I was so happy that I started typing this chapter even before I left on vacation. And I even showed your review to my friends! Thankies!!! *hands Wei-cool cookies* ^____^

So, this chappie is dedicated to Rie-chan and Wei-cool. Thanks guys! You're the best!

~*~ This chapter starts off when Kagome, Kikyou, and Mrs. Higurashi are in that fancy restaurant in the beginning of the story for Kikyou's meeting ~*~

Disclaimers: I've been forgetting about these, but luckily no one has sued me yet! The only characters I own in this story so far are the chickens and Drake…

**Mistaken Identity**

Chapter 6

_A Missing Higurashi_

            Kikyou frowned as she watched her older sister excuse herself from the table and leave the restaurant. Kagome should feel honored to be able to go to so many fancy places with Kikyou. She never understood how lucky she was to be able to do that. But her sister could never fully appreciate her like she should. Instead, Kagome was jealous…Kikyou was sure of it. But she acted like she didn't care.

            'It's pathetic, really,' Kikyou thought to herself. 'I'm kind enough to let her live in my home and give her money to buy gorgeous kimonos and take her with me to these rather important meetings. The little bitch could at least respect and worship me like every other person in Japan!'

            "Kikyou?" asked Mrs. Higurashi. Kikyou looked up at her mother and realized that everyone at her table was staring at her. She had forgotten where she was! "Kikyou, Mr. Nasake asked you if his terms were acceptable," Mrs. Higurashi explained to Kikyou.

            "Why yes! Of course they are!" Kikyou smiled brightly showing off all of her perfect white teeth to cover up her former lack of attention. Mr. Nasake grinned back and the two of them shook hands.

            "I will see you in two days then," he replied, and everyone continued to eat while chatting about the weather, Kikyou's wonderful looks, the food, Kikyou's charming attitude, and other unimportant matters.

            Kikyou smiled to herself. 'Everybody loves me. It's Kagome's own stupidity for not realizing how blessed she is to be the sister of the top model of Japan, every teenage woman's envy, every young girl's idol: Kikyou Higurashi. Me.'

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Kikyou awoke the next morning at 5:00, just like every other morning. She sat up and began her two and a half hour morning routine that she went through daily. Stripping herself of her sleeping attire she entered the bathroom and turned the shower on cold. She washed her hair with lilac scented shampoo and conditioner. Rose scented soap was lathered onto her body in generous helpings as she scrubbed herself clean. Once finished, Kikyou dried herself off and wrapped a towel around her slim figure. She left the bathroom and turned towards her closet instead. Kikyou walked down the long aisles of kimonos, yukatas, shoes, hats etc.

            'What shall I wear today?' she mused to herself. Kikyou finally settled on a dark purple kimono with a golden dragon curling up and down it. The obi was also purple, but slightly lighter than the kimono's hue and it ended in an intricate golden design with gold and silver tassels.

            "Nazuna!" Kikyou called  impatiently.

            A young girl with black hair put up in a low pony-tail came dashing in through a door labeled 'Servant Quarters'. She bowed to Kikyou and began helping her into the kimono. She tied the obi tightly around Kikyou's middle, bowed again, and then left through the same door she had come in through. Kikyou smirked to herself.

            'Everyone comes at my beck-and-call,' she thought before heading to the bathroom again. Just as she was adding the finishing touches to her hair with a few white, imitation flowers, Mrs. Higurashi burst into the room. Kikyou glared at her.

            "I've told you not to bother me this early in the morning! What is it you want?" she asked irritably.

            Mrs. Higurashi bowed in apology. "Forgive me, dear, but have you seen your sister? Kagome? She's not in her room and you know how she never wakes up this early…" she trailed off. Kikyou sighed in exasperation.

            "How should I know where she is?" she looked at her mother. "I'm sure she's around her somewhere, either that or she's run along back to the shrine. Kami knows why, that place was disgusting!"

            Mrs. Higurashi smiled at her daughter. "You're probably right, I'll call Grandpa and see if she's there," and Mrs. Higurashi left the room.

            "Ungrateful Kagome," Kikyou muttered to herself while fixing up her hair again. "Well, I can't be bothered about her right now, if she doesn't want to live in this wonderful mansion I have so generously allowed her to stay in, then it's not my problem!"

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            "Beautiful, Kikyou! Wonderful! Just like always!" the camera man praised as Kikyou flashed another one of her brilliant smiles and struck a seductive pose. "Okay! That's it! You're done for the day," the man said while switching off his camera. Kikyou's smile faded instantly back into her usually solemn expression. She left without a word and walked towards her changing room.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            "Hello Grandpa!" Mrs. Higurashi greeted the old man on the other end of the phone.

            "Haven't heard from you in awhile," he responded.

            "Gomen! We have been very busy, Kikyou and I…" Mrs. Higurashi trailed off.

            "Yes, and what about Kagome? Why haven't I heard from her?" questioned Grandpa.

            "You mean…she isn't there? She's not at the shrine?" gasped Mrs. Higurashi.

            "Of course she isn't. Kagome hasn't been at the shrine in ages. Not since you made her leave…should she be here?" he asked curiously. But his only response was the dial tone. Mrs. Higurashi had hung up.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Once Kikyou was back in her purple and gold kimono, she left the huge modeling building and was heading towards her limousine when she saw her mother waving frantically at her. Kikyou changed directions and, instead, walked unhurriedly over to her.

            "What is it?" she asked bluntly, coming to a halt in front of her.

            "Kagome's not at the shrine! And I've searched the entire house! I've sent Drake (AN: one of there servants, they're rich, people…) out to look for her around town…" Mrs. Higurashi ranted on frantically. Kikyou frowned in disgust.

            "This is ridiculous, Mother. I'm sure Kagome is hiding on purpose in order to get herself some attention. I wouldn't worry too much about it. She'll come out on her own in a day or two," Kikyou explained in a bored tone.

            Mrs. Higurashi nodded and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her plain, cream-colored yukata. (AN: once again, they're rich, so they wear fancy, traditional outfits) "Yes, I suppose you're right, dear. Kagome can be a bit…desperate sometimes. I believe she's still a little jealous of you, sweetie."

            Kikyou allowed herself to smile, 'Of course Kagome's jealous. Everyone is, so why shouldn't she?'

            Then the two of them walked towards the limo and rode home. Kikyou didn't think of Kagome for the rest of the night.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Kikyou woke at the usual time and went through her usual routine. She showered and had Nazuna, her personal and favorite servant, dress her in a dark, midnight blue kimono decorated with huge pink roses. After making sure her dark pink obi was secure, Kikyou entered the bathroom and had Nazuna tie her hair back in a complicated twisty knot situated near the top of her head. Today she would be meeting Mr. Nasake for her first modeling day with his company. Kikyou's lips turned up ever so slightly: this meant much more publicity for her!

            Kikyou left her room and descended the stairs for breakfast. She inhaled softly and the smell of Belgian waffles filled her nose. As she reached the dining room, she saw that her mother was there already, but Kagome wasn't.

            Mrs. Higurashi looked up and smiled at her daughter. "Ohayo," she greeted before turning back to the newspaper she was reading. Kikyou nodded at her before taking a seat and sipping at some orange juice.

            "Kagome…still hasn't shown up," Mrs. Higurashi commented in an attempt to sound casual, but her voice broke on the word 'shown'. Kikyou rolled her eyes and continued drinking. Once she had finished her juice, Kikyou ate half of a waffle and left for her limo.

            "I will return at 6:00," she informed Mrs. Higurashi before leaving for the studio.

            Mr. Nasake welcomed her and, after filling out some papers, was lead to a door labeled 'Kikyou Higurashi' in bold, black letters.

            "This will be your changing room," Mr. Nasake explained to her. "The outfits we want you to wear for the day will be left in the closet in the order you will be modeling them. You're schedule can be found in this box here," he pointed to a white container hooked on the wall, "You may change now, and then I will lead you to the room where the shooting for today will take place."

            Kikyou closed the door to her room and opened the closet. The first outfit was white and flowing. Lace patterns made up the sleeves and the dress tapered out in many layers until it reached the ground. It was cut low in a flowery design and large, angel wings stuck out in the back. A sash went loosely around the middle and a diamond crown was worn over Kikyou's head. 

After getting dressed and letting her hair down, Kikyou was lead to a room marked with a '7'. She struck many poses in the white outfit before going back to change again. This went on for hours.

            As the clock struck 5:30, Mr. Nasake knocked on Kikyou's dressing room and told her she was done.

            "I'll see you again in two days," he told her. Kikyou nodded and left for her limousine.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            The next morning was no different from every morning before it. Kikyou dressed in a white yukata that had black feathers blown across it and a silver obi. Surprisingly, she had no modeling jobs that day so she would spend the day resting instead. She stepped out of her room and walked down to the library. Selecting a romance novel entitled '_Love Me Forever_' about a girl who fell in love with her childhood friend she settled down into an armchair and began reading.

            When she was halfway through, she heard the doorbell. She set the book down and listened as she heard her mother's footsteps reach the door and open it. Straining her ears for another voice, besides her mother, she heard only the rustle of paper and her mother calling, "Hello! Is anybody there?".

            Kikyou sighed. Probably just some teenage punks carrying out some dare or some ridiculous idea like that. She had just situated herself back into her armchair when she heard Mrs. Higurashi scream loudly and shrilly. Tossing down the book she tried not to walk to quickly towards the front door. There she saw her mother in a dead faint sprawled across the floor by the front door, a piece of paper clutched firmly in her hand.

            Kikyou pried the paper from her mother's grasp and read it. It said:

            i hAve kaGOmE

            IF yoU evEr WAnT tO see HeR aGaiN theN bRinG 10,000,000 yEn 

to The SHethaI maRkeT oN fRidaY AT 12 mIDNighT

It was written in newspaper clippings. Kikyou grimaced, whoever had kidnapped Kagome hadn't been very smart. 'They could have gotten much more money if they had just kidnapped me, instead,' Then Kikyou shrugged, 'Their error, not mine.' She dropped the letter and left her mother lying by the door. 'I think I'll go finish my book now, I'll talk to mother later, and worry about what to do about Kagome after that…'

AN: PHEW! That was longer than I expected. Kikyou sure is modest isn't she? Not! Anyway, some of you may be wondering how the letter was delivered, well, Inuyasha gave Miroku the letter and had him play 'Ding Dong Ditch' in delivering it. Just thought I'd let you guys no that. Thanks for being patient and waiting so long for this chappie. And a special thanks to mangarocks007 for keeping me on my feet about updating. Feel free to email me about any questions, comments, or concerns you have about the story! Thanks again! And don't' forget to review!!!!


	7. To Rob A Town

Author's Note: Hey Guys! Sorry for the delay on this chapter, but it is pretty long for me so be thankful for that! I know the last update wasn't very fun for all you Kag/Inu fans…but this chapter will be! And so will the next! And the next! So fear not! It was simply a necessary part to the story.

School just started so my updating might become slightly irregular, but I'll do my best to update on weekends!

I might be taking a small break from this story soon so that I can finish my Cardcaptor Sakura story, Syaoran's Three Wishes. Just thought I'd warn you!

Disclaimer: Don't own nuthin'…

On with the story!

Mistaken Identity

Chapter 7

To Rob A Town

            Kagome woke up to find herself wedged firmly under a certain someone's arm. With soft, white hair falling around her face like a frame. And her body being smooshed up against a hard, firm chest….Kagome shook her head.

            'Bad Kagome! Bad, bad Kagome!' she scolded herself. Glancing up she saw that Inuyasha was still sound asleep. "Figures," she grumbled aloud to herself. Poking out her tongue in concentration, Kagome slowly wriggled herself out of Inuyasha's grasp, being careful not to awaken the sleeping hanyou. When she had succeeded in extracting herself from Inuyasha, Kagome threw on the same outfit Sango had given her to wear. The same one she had worn over the past couple of days. Wrinkling her nose, she pulled the simple shirt and loose pants on, 'When we go to town today, I have GOT to get new clothes…'

            Once dressed, she left the room and headed to the chicken coop. "I still have to tell Sango about poor Amy…hopefully she won't be too mad at me," Kagome said to herself amiably. Crouching down, she crawled, once more, through the small door into chicken land. To be greeted with a very familiar scene…blood and feathers. Glancing over at the chickens, she noticed that, sure enough, five, and only five, chickens were perched peacefully on the roost. Sarah was missing. Steeling her face, Kagome began cleaning up the mess before the stench sank into the wooden boards.

            "I have got to catch whatever animal is responsible for this!" she exclaimed angrily as she wiped up the floor. Once the mess had been cleared up, Kagome jerkily grabbed four eggs and headed back into the house to begin scrambling them with an angry storm cloud crashing above her head.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Inuyasha awoke to the gentle sound of a metal frying pan pounding down onto a solid stove. Wincing, he covered his ears and tried to block out the sound. When this failed, he dejectedly opened his eyes. Sitting up, he looked down at his taxi uniform. "I should have remembered to at least bring some extra clothes…" he muttered to himself. "Oh well, we ARE going into that little nearby town today." Blinking sleepily, he entered the kitchen and relaxed back into the closest chair.

            Unintentionally, Inuyasha's eyes drifted to the cooking girl to his right. Her clothes were creased and wrinkled, her hair was tangled, and her ever-present smile had become a scowl.

            "Any of your little chicken friends not wake up this morning?" Inuyasha asked. He had meant it as a joke, but Kagome only glared fiercely at him and her scowl deepened.

            "Do NOT mess with me," she warned in an icy voice. Inuyasha smirked but chose to remain silent in favor of listening to Kagome who was scrambling some eggs in a frying pan. Five minutes later, a plate was set down in front of him filled with fluffy, yellow eggs. Inuyasha looked questioningly up at Kagome.

            "Mine?" he asked.

            "If you don't want them then I'll feed 'em to the chickens!" she declared. Inuyasha snorted.

            "Don't you think that's a bit barbaric?" he teased. She glared at him again. "I mean, feeding a chicken its fried son or daughter?" Kagome glared harder. "I mean, how would you like it if -"

            "ALL RIGHT!" Kagome cut him off mid-sentence. "Geez, what do you want from me anyway?" Inuyasha was about to open his mouth before Kagome thought better of it. "Never mind, don't answer that." Inuyasha grinned a triumphant smile and Kagome couldn't help but smile in return. "Well, since we're on the subject of chickens, I want you to stay out with me tonight so that we can catch whatever it is that killed poor Amy and Sarah," Kagome explained.

            Inuyasha looked at her. "You mean one of those things really did die last night?" Kagome sighed in exasperation.

            "You have no sense of compassion, you do know that don't you?" Kagome complained. Inuyasha grinned proudly and struck a heroic pose.

            "Damn proud of it too!" he declared.

            "I give up…" Kagome mumbled to herself.

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            A few hours later, Kagome and Inuyasha were off, on the road to the little nearby town.

            "So, which town is it?" Kagome questioned, trying to start a conversation.

            "Shikon," Inuyasha replied stoically.

            "Hmmm, that's an interesting name for a town," Kagome thought aloud. "Have you ever been there before?"

            "No."

            "What are we going to get?"

            "Stuff."

            "What kind of stuff?"

            Inuyasha glared at her. "You will see when we get there," he said through clenched teeth.

            "Okay!" Kagome replied cheerfully, purposefully not noticing the hostile tone to Inuyasha's voice.

            "So how far away is this town anyway?" Kagome asked, still trying to get Inuyasha talking.

            All she earned was another glare.

            "Well?" she probed further.

            "Will you just shut-up!" he roared angrily. "Maybe we would be there already if you weren't using up all of your feeble amounts of energy on blabbing!"

            Kagome narrowed her eyes. "Don't tell me to shut-up Mister!"

            "I'll do whatever I please!"

            "You most certainly will not!"

            "You're MY prisoner!"

            "That doesn't give you the right to boss me around!"

            "That is where you're wrong!"

            Kagome was about to retaliate when she saw the faint outline of buildings up ahead. With a happy squeal she ran ahead. "Come on Inuyasha! We're almost there! Quit lagging behind and holding us back!"

            Inuyasha's jaw dropped. Him? Quit holding _them_ back? She was the one who'd been struggling to keep up this whole walk! Rolling his eyes up to the heavens, Inuyasha mumbled one thing before running to catch up with the girl in front of him: "Please help me God…"

~~~~~~~~~~**********~~~~~~~~~~

            Kagome couldn't get enough of this new town, Shikon, or whatever Inuyasha had called it. People everywhere. Shops lining the streets. A girl's dream come true! Like a happy child she ran back to Inuyasha with her hand outstretched. Inuyasha looked down at it. Reaching out he shook her hand and continued walking down the street.

            Kagome sighed exasperatedly. "No, silly! I need money so that I can go shopping!" She grinned ecstatically and stretched her hand out again

            Inuyasha was able to maintain a straight face for about three seconds. Then he burst out laughing. Kagome tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for his little fit to end.

            "What is so funny?" she finally exploded angrily. Inuyasha only laughed harder.

            "You! You think that after I went through all the trouble of kidnapping you that I had enough money to go on shopping sprees?!?!" he collapsed into another fit of laughter.

            Kagome's face went from a look of surprise to a look of shock to a look of downright horror. "You don't mean- I'm sure you're not expecting me to- we're not going to- to STEAL the stuff we need are we?" she asked nervously. One look of Inuyasha's laughing face told all. "YOU'RE CRAZY!" she shouted.

            Inuyasha flinched back from the loud noise. "Not so loud!" he hissed.

            Kagome ignored him in favor of scolding him. "You're mad! We can't steal stuff! What if we get caught?"

            "So?" he asked unconcernedly.

            "So? So! So if you get caught then the police are going to hunt you down all your life! It'll go on your permanent record! You'll have to hide everywhere you go! You'll need a new name…I suppose you really would have to be Balthazar. You would live like a rat! You'd always be hungry and living on the streets! You…but…" she trailed off as she caught sight of Inuyasha's facial expression. 

He had one of his perfect eyebrows cocked, a smirk planted on his rather kissable lips, and his arms crossed over his hard chest….whoa whoa whoa! Where did all that come from!?! Kagome shook her head softly, trying to fight back the blush threatening to creep across her face. "What do you find so amusing?" she asked more snappily than she had meant in an attempt to cover up her own embarrassment.

"Kagome…the police will already be after me since I kidnapped you. Once I get the ransom money I can bribe the police to clear my record and then live a life of luxury!" he explained nonchalantly.

Kagome looked at him incredulously. "You can't _bribe_ the police, Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha's smirk only widened. "I have connections."

Kagome looked at him doubtfully before rolling her eyes and mumbling an almost incoherent, "Whatever…"

"Let's see…we need food and water! So let's go in," closing his eyes, he randomly jabbed his finger at a store, "that one!"

Kagome looked at the store. It was called 'Perfumes and Lingerie'. She sweatdropped. Inuyasha looked at her sheepishly.

"Inuyasha. I highly doubt we will find anything edible in that store," she ground out with her eye twitching. Grabbing his arm she quickly steered him away from that store and, instead, to a grocery.

Walking up and down the aisles, Kagome first spotted a huge, yellow backpack. Reaching for it, she looked around cautiously.

"You want that?" Inuyasha asked her. Kagome nodded. Using his claw-like nails, Inuyasha sliced through the tags and handed it to Kagome. Hesitantly, she took it from him. 

"It's probably a good idea to have that too, we can put our stuff in it," Inuyasha informed her.

So, together they walked up and down the aisles, placing a pack of water bottles in the bag here, or a handful of ramen packages there. But by the time they left the store, Kagome's new backpack was almost full.

The next stop was the medical store. There, Kagome chose a basic first aid kit with all of the important things for treating wounds, headaches, and other common illnesses.

Last but not least, was the clothes shopping. Kagome led them to the biggest department store there and began grabbing stuff off of the racks faster than Inuyasha could blink.

"You're really getting into this whole 'stealing' gig," he commented slyly, as Kagome shoved a middle school uniform into her bag.

"Well, if we're gonna do it then I figure I might as well take advantage of it," she replied happily while yanking the tags off of an odd looking red haori.

"Are you really going to where that?" Inuyasha asked Kagome.

"Of course not, silly, this is for you!" she replied, holding it up for him to see. "Now, I'm not sure if this is the right size or not…but it looks like it'll fit you just fine!"

Inuyasha gawked at her. "You want ME to wear THAT?" he commanded of her incredulously.

"You mean you don't like it?" she asked. Kagome made certain that her eyes grew wide and pleading, her mouth puckered up into a tiny frown.

Inuyasha's face tinged a slight pink, but this went unnoticed by Kagome.

            "Keh," he responded tersely.

            "Yay!" Kagome cheered happily, and she shoved it into her bag. Grabbing Inuyasha's sleeve, she tugged him along the aisles until they both came to a stop in front of one specific rack.

            The two of them looked at eachother, broke out into wide grins, and sprinted to the huge rack labeled 'Bathing Suits'.

            "We can go swimming in that big lake we found before you, clumsily, conked out!" Inuyasha pointed out.

            "I know! I love swimming!" she cried back excitedly, ignoring the implied insult. They tried on all kinds of different suits. In all shapes and colors. Finally, they each decided on the one they wanted. 

Placing them into the now bulging yellow backpack, Kagome and Inuyasha casually walked towards the exit. But just as they walked through the gates that detected the barcodes on each item, the alarm went off. Extremely loud.

            All of the customers in the store turned their heads and were now staring at them. The cashiers were running over to them, waving their arms and yelling at them to 'stay there'.

            Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's arm, thrust her onto his back, and called, "Hang on!" to her before he jumped swiftly out the door and dashed out of the town, Kagome and her backpack bouncing along with him.

            "I must have forgotten to take the tags off of the bathing suits!" Kagome called to Inuyasha over the rush of wind.

            "Good job," Inuyasha shouted back sarcastically.

            Kagome gently tweaked his ear. "Let's go swimming when we get back! It's really hot!" she suggested. Inuyasha nodded and continued speeding towards their farmhouse. Only he didn't go as fast as he could have. Inuyasha had slowed down some so that the time in which his luggage was clinging to his back, wouldn't end too quickly…

Author's Note: Yay! Another chapter done! And it was a pretty decent length too! Well, now that school has started the updates might come slower than usual. But be patient, they will come! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review! The more good things I hear the faster I will want to update for you guys! ^_^


	8. Swimming

Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry for the delay…school is being extremely time-consuming. And what with my swim team starting and still trying to visit with friends, it's very difficult. So, here is a very much delayed update. Hope you guys enjoy!

Disclaimer: Due to the fact that my name is NOT Rumiko Takahashi, there is no possible way that Inuyasha and company belong to me…but if any of you manage to steal them and (for some unexplainable phenomenonical reason) decide that you don't want them anymore, then you're more than welcome to give them to me….^_^!

A quick note on a dedication here. I just wanted to let you all know that this story will be dedicated to KagomesJewel. She has been awesome in trying to keep me on my toes on updates and sending me her pictures. Oh, and if any of you haven't read her stories, you should! Check 'em out at her pen name which is KagomesJewel. But I already said that…^_^

Mistaken Identity

Chapter 8

Swimming

            Kagome and Inuyasha arrived back at the house about ten minutes later. Inuyasha lowered himself to the ground and, reluctantly, allowed Kagome to leave his back.

            "Well! That was an interesting shopping trip!" she cried cheerily. "That's the least amount of money I've ever spent at a shopping center in my entire life!" Shakily, she made her way to the house, trying to center the heavy load of her yellow backpack.

            Inuyasha sighed and plucked the pack off of her shoulder as if it weighed no more than a bag of feathers. "Pathetic human…" he muttered just loud enough for Kagome to hear. But instead of glaring, Kagome smiled back gratefully. Inuyasha's face flushed slightly. "Keh!" he declared, as if that settled the matter.

            "Well, we'd better hurry up and change into our suits if we don't want to miss the sun!" suggested Kagome, trying to rid Inuyasha of his embarrassment.

            "Keh," Inuyasha 'agreed'. Kagome rummaged through the backpack until she found the two bathing suits. Handing the one Inuyasha had chosen to its owner, she grabbed her own and headed towards the bathroom.

            "I'll change in here! You can take the bedroom," ordered Kagome. Inuyasha's response was to head towards the bedroom.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            "Oi! You ready yet, Kag?" Inuyasha called impatiently, now back to his former self, from outside of the bathroom. "How long does it take to get into that damn thing anyway?!"

            There was a crash from inside the bathroom and Inuyasha winced. "Stop distracting me! All you have to do is pull up some trunks!" she called back indignantly.

            "You're the one who picked the suit out!" Inuyasha retorted.

            Kagome shrieked and another crash was heard.  Inuyasha smirked, but remained silent. A few minutes later, Kagome stepped out of the bathroom.

            Angels sang and a light from heaven came down and spotlighted the beauty in front of him! Inuyasha coughed and turned his head, trying to hide the blush creeping up his face. Kagome was wearing a black bikini with pink cherry blossoms in the top right corners of both the top and bottom pieces. Kagome glared at Inuyasha playfully. "Well? I'm ready now, so let's go!" she prodded, grabbing his arm and completely missing his blush.

            But of course, Kagome had only wanted to leave so quickly, so that she could cover her own burning face at the sight of Inuyasha's well-muscled body.

            The two of them walked leisurely away from the house and towards the lake, Inuyasha resolutely focusing his gaze on the upcoming hill and Kagome, lost in thought, did the same. Although, Kagome's gaze was less strong, and she couldn't help stealing glances at the tanned chest belonging to the hanyou walking a mere foot away from her. Inuyasha felt her eyes trying to get away with these cautious looks. He smirked arrogantly.

            "Like what you see?" he asked teasingly, startling Kagome out of her thoughts and making her jump.

            "W-what do you mean?" she grumbled, flushing, but Inuyasha only cocked an eyebrow at her. "Hmph!" she declared, and sped up her pace. Inuyasha grinned to himself and followed the fuming girl in front of him.

            Soon they reached the lake and, extremely cautiously due to past experiences, picked their way down the hill towards the body of water.

            Edging towards the lake's shore, Kagome tossed down her backpack (which she had brought just in case) onto a grassy patch of earth situated between a clump of bushes and an old willow tree. Then, cautiously, she walked to the water and dipped her bare foot into it.

            "Goodness, its freezing!" Kagome declared, shivering. "No way will I be able to get into this!"

            Inuyasha had other ideas. Unknowingly to Kagome, he crept up behind her while she stood at the edge of the lake, looking down into its murky depths. He got closer and closer. He stretched out his hands and was inches away from her when suddenly –

            "Hey Inuyasha?" she called loudly. Inuyasha, being much closer than she had thought, jumped at the loud noise. He lost his balance and waved his arms wildly, trying very hard not to topple into the icy waters beneath him. In a last attempt, he grabbed at Kagome's arm. Kagome yelped as she felt herself falling with him. The two fell headlong with a loud splash.

            Kagome surfaced with a scream. All of the birds in the area flew away swiftly, cawing and squawking at the disruption.

            "Ooooo, I'm going to KILL you Inuyasha!" she raged, slamming her fists into the water and kicking her feet madly to stay afloat.

            Inuyasha's head bobbed up a few feet away and he snickered loudly at her. "Like you could do anything to me!" he crowed arrogantly.

            "Grrrr," she growled, in a very Inuyasha-like growl. This only made Inuyasha laugh harder. "I challenge you, oh unworthy competitor, to a race of speed and endurance! The course will be one circulation of this body of water!" Kagome stated elegantly.

            "So you wanna race around the lake?" he offered bluntly. Kagome glared.

            "Yes, you moron. And I will be the victor here!" she insisted! And with that, she dove off to her left.

            Kagome was a pretty good swimmer. She had never been on a competitive team or anything like that, but she had always enjoyed any outdoor activity, and the pool had been her main hang-out over the summers.

            But, unfortunately for her, Inuyasha was a hanyou. A very strong hanyou! He easily caught up to her in only a few strokes. Inuyasha struck up an easy pace (easy for him!) and swam just hard enough to keep up with Kagome without passing her. Kagome saw this and pushed the water passed her harder and faster. Her lungs were burning. The finish line was looming up ahead! She was so close! Suddenly, something moved in front of her. She stopped abruptly and yanked herself backward.

            This caused Inuyasha to run headlong into her. "Shit! What'd you do that for?" he cursed, rubbing his sensitive ears. Kagome didn't answer, but latched onto his arm, wrapping her legs around his torso. Pointing a shaky finger, she indicated a ripple of movement a little ways away from them.

            "What? You're scared of fish?" he teased.

            "It might have teeth!!" she whimpered, flinging her arms around his neck. Inuyasha certainly wasn't arguing about the current position they were in, so he thought he'd make the most of it. He swam a little closer to the ripples. 

Kagome's grip tightened. "What are you doing?!" she hissed, eyes darting around wildly.

"Chill! I'm just seeing what's over there!" Inuyasha responded casually. Slowly, ever so painfully slowly, Inuyasha tread water towards the rippling water. 

Suddenly, a GIANT fish leapt out right in front of him! Kagome screeched in panic and scrambled up Inuyasha's back, wild with fear. Inuyasha bolted towards the shore. He could hear the shark-like fish gnashing its teeth and giving chase. Swiftly it dove underwater and popped up a few feet in front of Inuyasha, blocking his path. Inuyasha cursed as the fish charged straight at them.

"Hold on tight!" he commanded Kagome. Not that he had to; she was doing quite a good job at this without any encouragement.

"Heh!" he cried confidently. "You picked the wrong guy to mess with Mr. Fishy!"

Kagome looked at him incredulously. "Are you friggin' crazy?!" she ground out angrily. "Don't make it mad!"

Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow at her. "Just watch!" he declared arrogantly. He didn't have time to say anything else because at this point, Mr. Fishy got tired of their little conversation. It leaped at Inuyasha with a hungry look in its eye. Inuyasha grinned and pulled his hand back over his head.

"SANKON TESSOU!" he cried and his claw-like nails came swooshing down upon the poor fish. With a loud 'smack', Mr. Fishy came raining down into the lake in little bitty pieces.

Kagome's mouth was hanging open in shock. "W- what the- how did you- WOW! I knew you were half-demon…but my goodness!" 

Inuyasha gave her a lop-sided grin. "Told ya so!" he exclaimed. He looked so proud of himself that Kagome couldn't help but start laughing. "What?" he asked.

Kagome reached up and patted his head. "You're too cute!" she responded, thinking aloud. Inuyasha froze at the contact as the two of them seemed to realize how close they were. Kagome pressed up against Inuyasha's back; resting her head on his shoulder. Kagome quickly slid off of him and said "Uh…uh…nice weather we're having isn't it?" Then she mentally slapped herself. 'Way to go Kag, that was a VERY discreet way to change the subject…'

Inuyasha wrinkled his nose while looking up at the sky. "Not really…"

Kagome glanced up and saw that Inuyasha was quite right. Ugly black clouds were streaming in from behind them, and the sky had turned a boring grey. "Yah…I guess not…" she agreed. A cold wind picked up and began shooting through the cattails surrounding the lake. "Looks like a storm," Kagome stated the obvious. Inuyasha nodded. "Let's head back."

The two swam over to the nearest shore and Kagome shouldered her enormous yellow backpack. Light raindrops began to pitter patter down on their heads, and Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's hand and pulled her onto his back. Kagome didn't argue. With a mighty leap, he began on his short run home; racing the raindrops.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Inuyasha kicked the door to the farmhouse open with his foot. Walking over to the couch, he dropped his luggage (a.k.a. Kagome ^_^) on the couch. Kagome sighed happily as she snatched the think, hand-knitted blanket off the top of the couch and wrapped it around her shivering form. Inuyasha sat down next to her and grabbed half of the covers. Kagome glared.

            "Go get your own blanket!" she grumbled, but she let him have half anyways. Outside, the thunder and lightning argued with each other very loudly, but the two people inside the little farmhouse were unaffected by the outside storm. Although neither would admit it, being in each other's company was enough

Author's Note: Sorry that the chapter is kind of short…but hey, there was fluff! The next chapter will either be about the next morning or about what happens during the thunder storm. It's all up to you guys! Pleeeaaase review!!! You all send the most sweetest reviews ever!! I love getting them and it makes me want to update more and more! So please send me your comments and I'll get your chapter out sooner! Love you all! *blows kisses*


	9. The Chicken Murderer

A/N: Hey guys! Thank you all so so much for all of the wonderful reviews! You all are too kind!  I wanted to say a special thank you to Kagomesjewel (you really are the best!), animebaby08060, and RAPluvsDBZ for giving me some constructive criticism and suggestions! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 

Disclaimer: Whoever decided that these things needed to be put on every single fanfiction ever written really wanted to lower the world's self-esteem…(I don't own Inuyasha!)

On with the story!

Mistaken Identity

Chapter 9

The Chicken Murderer

            The storm had finally ended, allowing the sun to shine and dry the world again. The birds sang and the grass shone with morning dew. Kagome squirmed closer to Inuyasha who wrapped his arms around her.

            "I'll always protect you, Kagome," he promised in an emotional voice.

            "Oh, Inuyasha!" she cooed and hugged him tightly. The two lovebirds gazed into each others eyes, their lips growing closer to each other. Closer…closer…closer…

            "GAAAAH!!!" came a muffled shriek from one of the two pillows on the couch…connected to a young girl's body. Kagome would've shot straight upwards after that vivid dream had there not been a strong arm holding her waist protectively and that same someone's head resting on the pillow cutting off her air supply. With difficulty, she inched out from under the offending pillow and, using her own head, shoved Inuyasha's off her pillow and onto his.

            Unfortunately for her, Inuyasha didn't like his cold, unused pillow as much as the nice comfy warm one he had been sleeping on all night. So with a quiet growl, he rolled back over onto the better of the two pillows. Kagome squeaked at his sudden movement and pushed herself as far away from him as possible, resulting in her becoming a Kagome sandwich. With the back of the couch on one side and a sound-asleep hanyou on the other, Kagome was in quite a situation.

            Turning her head so that it could rest slightly on the couch, she strained her neck at an odd angle and gazed upwards at the ceiling. 'One…two….three…' Kagome idly counted the boards making up the roof of the house. '…four…five…six...'.

            After several minutes of this fun-filled activity, her neck became stiff from being tensed up for so long. So with a disgruntled sigh, Kagome abandoned the ceiling boards and laid her head back down onto the closest resemblance to a pillow she could find: the crook of Inuyasha's neck.

            'Oooh, what a muscular pillow!' a little voice inside her head sighed happily.

            Kagome mentally glared at this unwanted part of her mind, "It is not!" she hastily replied

            'Is too! I'm lying on him just like you are!' retorted the annoying little voice.

            "Where did you even _come_ from?!" snapped Kagome.

            'I'm your conscience!'

            Kagome snorted. "Yah right."

            'Fine…but I _am_ the little voice inside your head!'

            "Congratulations," Kagome replied sarcastically. Meanwhile...Inuyasha had woken from his little slumber and was staring at Kagome in worried amazement.

            "Not to interrupt or anything," Inuyasha began, "but do you always have random conversation with yourself in the morning?"

            Kagome blushed. "Uh…yes…it…brings a…uh…healthier start to the day!" Kagome mentally slapped herself. 'Way to go…' Inuyasha just backed up from her a little bit. Kagome sweat dropped.

            "Anyways!" she clapped her hands and sat up. "You need to help me catch the murderer!" 

Inuyasha moved a little farther from her. "I am not going after any murderers. Especially with a psycho freak like you," he blatantly declared. 

Kagome flicked his twitching ear. "The one who's been eating the chickens dummy!" Inuyasha's mouth formed an 'o' in realization. Kagome flicked his other ear to even it out and quickly jumped off the couch before Inuyasha could flick her own ear with his rather sharp claws. Goodness knows those things could cause more damage than her own puny nails could.

            Grimacing, Inuyasha rolled off the couch and ran a finger through his tangled hair. 'How can she be so bouncy after just waking up?' he thought to himself, eyeing the bubbly girl. "And the hell does her hair look so friggin' perfect after sleeping on it all night?!" he grumbled aloud.

            "All men wonder, but we shall never know any of the lovely females' secrets," a manly voice explained from the open window. Inuyasha jumped and turned his now-wide-awake eyes to the window.

            "Miroku! Don't sneak up on me like that…"

            Miroku grinned and pulled himself up through the window and into the room.

            "Did Sango tag along?" Inuyasha questioned. Before Miroku could answer, however, he heard the girl's voice from the kitchen, happily chatting to Kagome as if they were old friends. Miroku grinned sheepishly. "And…what's the status with the police?" Inuyasha asked with an edge to his voice.

            "Aw, common man! You know I'm takin' care o' them!" Miroku slapped his friend on the back. Inuyasha let out a sigh in relief. All was going well…

            Meanwhile…Kagome and Sango were quickly becoming fast friends. "So what's the deal with you and Miroku?" Kagome asked with a wink and a nudge.

            Sango averted her gaze and suddenly found the toaster to be very interesting. "Nothing! That moron's just my partner at work."

            "Uh-hu~uh," Kagome drawled out the last syllable with a huge, smug grin plastered to her face.

            A vein popped in Sango's forehead.

            Kagome made her eyes double in size. "Sooooo, when are you guys getting married?" She blinked innocently.

            A few more veins popped on poor Sango's head and her eye began twitching.

            Kagome cocked her head. "Can I be a bridesmaid?"

            Sango slammed her hand onto the table and leapt to her feet. "YOU BETTER RUN YOU SOON-TO-BE-DEAD…THING YOU!!!" Sango threatened.

            Kagome shrieked and fled to the neighboring room and quickly slammed the door behind her, clicking the lock into place. 

"I'LL GET YOU YET!!!" shrieked a crazed Sango.

Miroku and Inuyasha sweat-dropped.

"Hide me! Hide me!!" Kagome squealed, leaping into the open hallway closet. She promptly slipped on a vacuum cord and grabbed at some hanging coats, pulling them off of their hangers and landing in a heap on the floor. "Owww…" Kagome moaned, clutching her head which had hit the wall. She soon grew silent, however, upon hearing Sango barge through the still-open window and crash into the room.

"WHERE…IS…SHE???" Sango demanded of the two stunned boys.

"Erm…we don't know?" supplied Inuyasha confusedly.

"You lie!" Sango hissed, an evil glint shining in her eye. "Teeeeell meeeeee," she whispered in a dangerously quiet voice. Miroku and Inuyasha pointed to the closet and slowly backed away from the scary girl.

Sango slunk to the closet and pressed herself up against the wall next to the door. Suddenly, she flung open the door. "AHA-ACK!" Sango's shout of triumph was transformed into a shriek quite like Kagome's as she, too, slipped on the strategically placed vacuum cord.

Kagome crawled out, laughing hysterically, and collapsed next to Sango with a happy grin on her face.

"So…are you still gonna kill me?" Kagome asked.

"Maybe some other time…" Sango suggested ruefully.

Miroku and Inuyasha just stood where they were, quietly wondering to themselves whether or not these two girls were crazy.

With a final giggle, Kagome stood up and helped Sango up too. "Well! Shall we go see to those chickens?" she asked Inuyasha.

"As long as you two don't…go all maniacal again…or whatever it is you just did…" he trailed off. Kagome smirked and cackled to herself. This of course, did nothing to ease poor Inuyasha's mounting fear of her.

"She's cute when she's creepy," Miroku whispered to Inuyasha in an undertone. Inuyasha just looked incredulously at him before following the two girls outside to the chicken coop.

Kagome ducked her head to look in the little square door. Thankfully, there was no blood or loose feathers. "Good! We can still catch it!" Grabbing Sango's arm, she brought her around to the far side of the chicken coop. "This will be your station! Keep an eye out for any…unusual behavior."

Sango mock-saluted, "Yes, ma'am!"

"Miroku! You can go…" Kagome looked the chicken coop over. However, Kagome made the mistake of turning her back on the police officer. Big mistake. "YEEEEEEEEEK!!! PERVERT!" screamed an offended Kagome, slapping Miroku's hands away from her behind. Sango poked her head around the corner of the tiny building.

"D'you see it?" she asked curiously.

"HE TOUCHED ME!" Kagome glared daggers at Miroku before pounding her fist into his head and shoving him in with the chickens. "YOU JUST STAY IN THERE…DON'T YOU DARE COME OUT!!!" Not that he could have, seeing as Kagome had knocked him unconscious. 

            Sango shook her head knowingly before retreating back to her post.

            "Humph…Inuyasha! You take the left side, and I'll stay on the right."

            Kagome marched over to the right side and slid down onto the wet ground.

            Five minutes went by.

            "The itsy bitsy spider, went up the water spout…down came the rain and washed the water out!" Kagome sang with a sweeping motion of her hands.

            Ten minutes.

            Inuyasha sighed and squished another ant, burying it in his growing buggy graveyard.

            Fifteen minutes.

            Sango finished braiding a flower necklace with the surrounding buttercups.

            Twenty minutes.

            Miroku was still knocked out in the chicken coop.

            It was then that Inuyasha caught a new scent. Moving into a crouch, he hissed towards to Kagome, "I think something's coming!"

            Kagome craned her neck in Inuyasha's directions. "Where?!"

            Before Inuyasha could point, a small, furry auburn thing ran up from the woods. Kagome and Inuyasha quickly hid behind the coop so as not to be seen. The thing leaped along, coming to a halt in front of the little door. Creeping up, it was just about to enter when a strong hand came down from above and picked it up.

            "SHIT!!" cursed Inuyasha as sharp teeth sunk into his hand, but he didn't drop the fuzzy package.

            "Lemmego!! Lemmego!!" whined what looked like a young fox, kicking and flailing his arms and legs in an attempt to get free. Kagome and Sango crouched down in front of it, their faces hidden beneath their bangs. Suddenly they grabbed the little fox and hugged it tightly.

            "KAWAII!! SO KAWAII!!!" they squealed happily, petting his fluffy tail and cuddling his hair.

            "What's your name little foxy-woxy?" Sango asked in a baby voice. The fox glared at her and wriggled out of their grasp.

            "My name is Shippou! I'm a fox demon, so watch out!" Inuyasha cracked his knuckles menacingly.

            "So you're the little bugger who's been eating our chickens!" he accused.

            Shippou shrugged. "I gotta eat ya know…"

            "Shouldn't your parents be feeding you?" Inuyasha pointed out.

            "They're dead…but I can take care of myself!"

            Kagome and Sango still had little hearts in their eyes. "Can I keep him Inuyasha?" Kagome begged of the hanyou on her knees.

            Looking into those big, puppy-dog eyes of hers, how could he say no?

            "Keh…"

            "WHEEEEEE!!" Kagome squealed and threw her arms in the air. Grabbing Shippou, she began to happily dance around with him.

            "Hey!! Put me down!!" cried Shippou indignantly.

            "But we've got yummy…ramen!!" Kagome pulled a package out of her pocket.

            Shippou thought for a moment. "Okay!"

            "Wait! That's my ramen!! You can't give it to that little brat!" Inuyasha ranted.

            "Inuyasha…be nice!" Kagome warned. "I'll make some for you too!"

            Sango laughed and the four ran inside to make ramen for everyone.

            Meanwhile…poor Miroku lay forgotten with the five remaining chickens.

Author's Note: ^_^ Well, it certainly took awhile for me to get out to you guys, but what'd you think? A plot will start in the next chapter and we'll actually see some action! Please review and I'll get a chapter out ASAP! Remember, the more reviews I get, the more encouraged I feel and the faster I write! Love ya guys!


	10. Running Away

Author's Note: Thanks for the encouraging reviews! Okay guys, there's gonna be some actual plot-like action in this chapter, and it's not as happy-go-lucky as the last one. Hope you enjoy! ^_^

Mistaken Identity

Chapter 10

Running Away

            Kagome blinked. Once, twice. It was still very dark inside and out of the farmhouse she had grown so attached to. Stretching, she rolled off of the bed and waited for her eyes to become accustomed with the inky blackness surrounding her. Glancing at the neon green numbers of the digital clock, Kagome did a double take.

            "Three thirty…?" she groaned. Kagome was one of those girls who awoke at ten and begged for just five more minutes. Three thirty was an ungodly forbidden time to be up and about. But by now her eyes were open and all of her sleepiness had left her. Now wide-awake, Kagome noticed how cute Shippou and Inuyasha looked.

            Inuyasha had argued that Shippou should sleep outside or at least stay on the couch, but Kagome wouldn't have any of that. In the end, he had gotten to snuggle in between the two of them. Since Kagome had left, Shippou had curled into a tighter ball and moved closer to Inuyasha's warmth. Giggling, Kagome left the adorable duo to it.

            "Hmmm, it's too early for breakfast," she mused to herself. Wandering aimlessly, she soon found herself outside. Surprisingly, no wave of cold was there to greet her; it was strangely warm. Lying down on her back, Kagome spread her arms and legs out as wide as possible, gazing up at the twinkling stars and full moon.

            The stars had always fascinated Kagome. It amazed her how something so huge could appear as miniscule as a few grains of sand. Holding her thumb up, she covered the moon before sighing and rolling over onto her stomach. 

Everything always looked so different at night. It was as if a magic spell had transformed reality into a spirit world full of shadows and mystery. When she was little, Kagome used to sleep in a tent in her backyard with her cat, Buyo. She would make up stories about exotic princesses being captured by evil demons. The princess would be taken to the ghastly king and be saved from death in the nick of time by prince charming. Buyo wasn't the best listener, but he was the closest thing she could ever get to an audience.

            Her mom was always too busy with Kikyou, who relished all of the attention. Sure, her grandfather usually had spare time, but all he wanted to do was give her a history lesson on every person, place, or thing she ever mentioned. Souta, well, he was a little brother. He was fun to play with on occasion, but mostly he was off with his own friends.

            "Snap out of it, Kag!" she ordered herself.  Pushing off the grass, she hoisted herself up and to her feet. It was still very dark out, and Kagome wasn't hungry yet. She strolled up to the chicken coop, and peeked inside. All of the remaining chickens were still sounds asleep. Miroku had been cleared up and left with Sango last night.

            Kagome smiled at the memories, she hadn't had that much fun in ages! She felt like she had known them all for ages. Sango, Miroku, and…Inuyasha…

            Thinking about him, her heartbeat seemed to double and she felt her face burn. Kagome shook her head and quickly left the coop. She didn't want to think about her feelings right now; it would only leave her feeling confused and unloved.

            Looking up, she saw that she had ended up at the stable. Naraku, the dark, temperamental horse, shoved his head over his door and glared angrily at her.

            "Why are you always so mad?" she asked him sadly. "I just want to be your friend…" Her only response was for the horse to lift his lip to display his strong teeth, but this didn't faze Kagome. She took a step towards him. Naraku reared back on his hind legs and waved his hooves wildly, hate evident in his eyes. Kagome faltered, but still took another step forward. 

"Let me help you," she told the horse calmly. Shaking his head, Naraku backed up into the solitude of his stall. Curious, Kagome walked the remaining paces to the stall door. "Are you there?" she called quietly, half-hoping he wasn't. Placing her hands on the swinging door, she leaned in a little. "Nar-," she was cut off by an angry whinny.

Kagome leapt back in fright, but wasn't quick enough. The right cuff of her nightshirt and a bit of her wrist had caught in Naraku's snapping teeth. Yanking backwards, she began to panic and ripped away from the horse, part of her pajamas hanging from his mouth as he followed her movements with an angry stare.

Choking on a sob, she stumbled out of the farm area and bolted in a random direction. Running blindly, tears hampering her vision, she just kept on going, not caring where she would end up. It wasn't that the pain was so intense; she just wanted to leave all of her problems behind. The evil horse. Her unloving family. Her growing feelings for a certain hanyou. It was all becoming too much for her to bear.

A cramp began to develop in her side, but Kagome didn't stop until she had tripped over a rock jutting out of the ground. Whimpering from physical and emotional pain, Kagome leaned back against a nearby tree and drew her legs up against herself. Huddled in a ball, exhausted from her run and worn out from crying, she finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Inuyasha groggily registered in his mind that pale sunlight was streaming through the window. Rolling over, he reached to put an arm around Kagome. He had grown used to having her around and had even begun to enjoy her company. It seemed second nature that they slept together now. However, his arm groped around and came up with…nothing. Just the mussed blankets and Kagome's cool pillow, her body heat long gone from it, but her gentle smell still clinging to it from many nights of use.

            "Mmmm," he groaned tiredly, "She's probably making ramen…or something…" It was then he felt the tiny bundle squished up against his side. Looking down, he spotted the auburn hair tied back with a blue bow.

            "YOU!" he cried angrily, leaping back and falling off the side of the bed. Cursing, he tried to untangle his feet from the blankets that had followed him onto the floor. A pair of sleepy green eyes peered down at him.

            "Goo' mornin'," mumbled Shippou, almost incoherently.

            "Where's Kagome, you little twerp?" he asked irritably.

            Shippou looked left and right before shrugging, "I dunno."

            Inuyasha growled, "Whatever." Getting to his feet, he strode off in the direction of the kitchen. "Kagome?" he called into the empty room. Trying not to get worried, he sped out the front door.

            "KAGOME!!!" he shouted loudly, before pausing to listen for a response with strained ears. He began pacing back and forth in front of the house. "Where the hell is she?!" he ground out. Sniffing around, he tried to catch her scent, but the whole yard was already saturated with it and wouldn't give him and leads. Springing to action, he began checking all of her favorite outdoor places.

            Racing to the chicken coop, he stuck his head in and called for her; but all that got him was a bunch of white feathers flying into his mouth from the suddenly aroused, squawking chickens. Spitting out the feathers, he checked behind the house, up the big tree in the front yard, and even thought about running down to the lake before noticing one last place on the farm he hadn't searched yet: the stable.

            Like a mad man, he ran to the stable door and forcefully shoved it open. "Kagome?" he asked the almost-empty room. Naraku stuck his head over his stall door and flung his ears back at the sight of him. A loud whinny escaped Naraku's throat, startling Inuyasha who turned around and glared angrily at the horse.

            "You just shut-up you stupid horse!" Inuyasha yelled. The horse only neighed again and went back on his hind legs, bringing his front ones crashing down into the wall, causing more noise than ever. Naraku then looked at Inuyasha in a way that said, quite plainly, 'Make me!' in a mocking sort of way.

            Inuyasha slowly turned toward the horse and his claws extended. "Do not mess with me right now," he warned, his bangs hiding his eyes. Naraku snorted and his front foot pounded the ground as if to say, 'Bring it on!'

            Inuyasha leapt to the door and bounded into the stall, his nerves on end. Just as he was about to take a swipe at Naraku, he spotted something white in the horse's mouth and froze. It was a piece of Kagome's nightgown. It was then that Naraku decided to attack. Bucking his hind legs, he lashed out at Inuyasha who barely managed to dodge.

            "I do NOT have time for this!" he growled furiously and leapt out of the stall door. Once out, he caught sight of a red splotch on the ground near the stall. Crouching onto all fours, he took one whiff and recognized it as Kagome's. A few more drops could be seen leading out of the stable and into the nearby forest. 

Turning back to Naraku, "I'll deal with you when I get back, you monster! If you hurt her…," he threatened before bounding off. Finally, he had her scent! Sprinting off, he was halfway to the forest when he remembered something. "Aw shit!"

Making a speedy u-turn, Inuyasha ran back to the house at top speed. "SHIPPOU!!!" he called as he skidded into the house. Shippou, who was currently digging through the food supply, cocked his head at Inuyasha curiously.

"Did ya find Kagome?" he asked.

"I'm about to. You stay here. Don't leave the house and don't touch anything!" he ordered. Shippou pouted.

"You mean you lost her?!" he called in a panicked voice after Inuyasha, who had just left the house. He liked Kagome, she was nice to him. "And you're leaving me all alone?!" he wailed. Shippou was about to shout something else, when it dawned on him. He was in a warm house with a real bed and shelves full of yummy food! He smiled happily. Life was good!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Kagome shivered and wondered why she was so sore. 'Must have fallen off of the bed…,' she thought to herself. Kagome reached to pull herself back into the bed. When her hand reached nothing, she forced her eyes to open and was immediately blinded by the bright sunlight. Quickly throwing her hands over her eyes, she patiently waited for the flashing color splotches to disappear before removing her clamped fingers. 

Squinting, she looked around herself and failed to recognize where she was. Leaning against an enormous tree, her head was propped up on a curved tree root. A squirrel snatched an acorn a few feet from her tree and chattered at her possessively.

"Just take the stupid acorn! Not like I wanted it…" Kagome muttered to herself. She had a pounding headache and it hurt to think why she was here. After a few minutes though, she remembered. Now that she thought about it in broad daylight, it suddenly seemed childish of her. She had just let everything come at her at once, and hadn't been ready for it. Now, with a clear mind and sunshine, nothing seemed as bad as it had that morning.

Standing up with her usual smile, she stretched and yawned. "I'll just head back to the farm and…" she trailed off as something clicked into place. She didn't know where she was!!

Frowning, she turned around in a circle, trying to guess at which direction would take her to the farmhouse. "S'pose I'll just have to guess…" she shrugged while deciding to just go straight. Hopefully she would be right.

~~~~~ A Few Hours Later ~~~~~

            Kagome panted. She was parched and very hungry. "I shoulda eaten something before running off like that," she grumbled under breath. Not only that, but her wrist was pounding dully from the horse bite Naraku had given her. Even if it had stopped bleeding, it still didn't look so good and it continued to hurt.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she thought she caught a glimpse of a moving shadow. Quickly turning her head, she tried to see what it had been. But if there had been anything there in the first place, it was gone now. Shrugging, Kagome continued, singing softly to herself and putting a slight skip into her step.

            It wasn't long before she saw another shadow and heard a rustle in the leaves above her head. Kagome froze. Someone or something was following her. Quietly, she slunk backwards until she was behind a nearby tree.

            Desperately trying to think of something, Kagome just decided to bolt and try to lose them. Dashing along as fast as she could, she did a few zigzags in an attempt to shake them off her trail.

            Now, she wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but she was almost certain that she had heard a snicker somewhere to her left. Gulping, she was about to speed up even more, when one of the shadows dropped down in front of her.

            "Well, well, well! What have we got here?" asked a cocky voice. Kagome's eyes grew round as she looked the person blocking her path up and down. He had long black hair tied up in a high pony-tail. Bright blue eyes glinted under a brown headband which allowed a few wisps of hair to poke through. Brown fur and grey armor decorated his lean, muscular body, showing off his strong arms and legs. In the back, a tail swished back and forth in what Kagome could only guess was amusement.

            "Erm…could you move please?" Kagome asked in a shaky voice. The man in front of her only smirked and she heard laughing voices from every direction.

            "I don't think so," he shook his head before darting forward at an unbelievable speed and grasping her around the waist, flinging her over his shoulder. Someone next to this guy knocked her head twice and Kagome's conciseness slowly faded. The last thing she thought before blanking out completely was, 'Please don't be mad…Inuyasha…'

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Meanwhile, Inuyasha was racing after Kagome at an alarming rate. He wasn't thinking about the money he would lose if he didn't catch her, or that she could tell the police. All he was thinking about was Kagome. _Kagome. Sweet, happy Kagome_

            "Stay safe Kagome. I'm coming!" he promised her. She was his only chance at life right now, and he didn't plan on losing that. Not if he could help it.

Author's Note: Wow! This has got to be my fastest update ever!! Pleeeaaase read and review!! My exams are in one week so don't expect an update for a little while. However, if I get tons of reviews then you might just see a chapter sooner than you thought! Love you guys!! ^_^


	11. The Second Kidnapping

Author's Note: Thanks for being so patient! It took me awhile to get the finer points of this chapter planned out, but now it's here ready for your reading enjoyment!

Disclaimer: Yadda yadda…don't own Inu…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

**Mistaken Identity**

Chapter 11

_The Second Kidnapping_

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

            "Got any sixes?"

            "Nope, go fish."

            Kagome cracked open an eye at the sound of male voices not far from where she lay, sprawled out on a cold, stone floor. Through her long eye-lashes she was able to blurrily see two scantily clad men with the most bizarre hair-do's she had ever seen. Rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand, she blinked several times, hoping to clear her vision and determine just who these men were.

            "Hey, she's awake!" the guy with the spiked mohawk pointed out. Glancing her way, the second of the two males nodded in agreement.

            "Where am I?" Kagome asked groggily, pushing herself to a sitting position and looking around dazedly.

            "In a cave," responded Mohawk-Man.

            "In the woods!" finished his friend.

            Rolling her eyes, Kagome knew better than to question any further. She needed to get out of there and try to find a way back to Inuyasha! "Well, it was nice meeting you," she stood up and brushed imaginary dust from her wrinkled shirt, "but I really must be going so…" Kagome trailed off as she tried to inch around them toward the sunlight seeping in through the mouth of the cave.

            Reaching out and catching her ankle, Mohawk-Man (as Kagome had so thoughtfully dubbed him) gave a sharp tug and brought Kagome back to the ground. Well…she hadn't really expected that to work anyways.

            "We're your guards, and Kouga told us we had to make sure you stayed here!" declared Mohawk-Man's friend proudly. He then held up the deck of cards, "So do you wanna play?"

            "Eh…no thanks…" Kagome sighed dejectedly. Crawling over so that she was between the two men and the exit she called, "I'll just be sitting here…" she sat down for emphasis, "waiting for this Koko guy…"

            "Kouga," her guards chorused together without even looking up from their game.

            "Right," mumbled Kagome. Patiently, she waited for the two men to become entirely engrossed in their cards; then she'd make her move.

            Eyeing her surroundings, she confirmed what she'd been told and that she was, indeed, in a cave. Rocks littered the floor and few puddles of water had collected in some of the deeper nooks and crannies of the rock walls. A perpetual, dull roaring echoed slightly from the sunlit exit.

Turning her attention back to her captors, she tried to see what possible motives they could have had for kidnapping her from her original kidnapper. If truth be told, these two looked harmless enough with their happy, almost clueless faces. Both were wearing black arm bands, faded gray armor across the upper half of their chest, and brown cloth around their waists. Also, to Kagome's immense surprise, each had a bushy brown tail twitching behind them.

Contemplating to herself, Kagome decided that they must be some kind of demons. Now, on to Kouga…was he their leader? Or some god they worshiped? Maybe Kouga was their torture-device. Kagome shivered and shook her head…better not dwell on an awful idea like that. 

'And how's Inuyasha doing…?' she wondered. Shaking her head ruefully, she mumbled to herself, "He probably thinks I ditched him and ran off back home." Although she tried to make this sound like no big deal to her, inside she desperately hoped that he'd come to her rescue like a fairy-tale Prince Charming and whisk her away back to the…farmhouse. Okay, so maybe there wasn't a castle, but she'd grown quite attached to that little cottage they'd been living in for the past few days.

Glancing back up to the game of fish, Kagome observed that they probably wouldn't notice her even if she jumped up and starting doing the chicken dance. Not that she'd give them a chance to prove her theory wrong.

With the utmost care, she planted her hands by her sides and pushed herself up to her feet. Standing on her tip-toes, she cautiously made her way to the cave entrance.

'Step by step!' she encouraged herself, 'You can do it, almost there!'

Finally, Kagome reached the outdoors. Without realizing it, she had been holding her breath, which she quickly let loose. Turning her head right she saw what had caused the echoes she had earlier heard in the cave: a waterfall.

Cascading off of a high cliff in a graceful arc of sparkling droplets, it was by far the most beautiful thing Kagome had ever seen. She stood mesmerized by it for a few minutes before her neck grew sore from craning it up at the view.

Just as she was about to wander off and make her escape, someone tapped her shoulder. Whirling around, she leaped backwards and held her hands up in front of her face in instant defense mode.

"I'm terribly sorry! Are you alright, Miss?" asked a new, extremely polite male voice. Spreading apart her fingers so that she could see who had given her such a scare, she saw a bewildered looking young man in a navy blue suit.

Dropping her hands from her face, she nodded in response to the man's concerned question. He did look quite worried. His short brown hair was combed back very neatly and his soft, brown eyes were eyeing her anxiously.

Nodding again, she responded, "Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry, you just startled me, is all." Flashing him a reassuring smile, she quickly looked to see if he had a tail, and low and behold, he was tailless! "Hey…you're a human aren't you! Who are you? What are you doing in this demon camp? Did they capture you too?!"

"Capture me…?" this seemed to confuse the young man, "Goodness no! They _hired_ me!" he chuckled good-naturedly at Kagome. Apparently he had thought that that had been quite an entertaining little joke. "And my name is Houjo."

"Hired…" Kagome trailed off perplexedly. "Hired you for what?"

"For my services, Miss," he explained. "You see, I'm a pr-" he was cut off mid-sentence and jerked backwards by a strong, clawed hand.

Kagome gasped in recognition as she saw the face of the man who had interrupted their conversation. It was the guy who had knocked her out in the woods!! His long black hair was, once again, tied up in a high pony-tail, and a brown sweat band was shoved carelessly upon his forehead to keep his bangs back. This must be the brown-tailed-demons' leader…Kouga.

"Oi, what are you doing out of that cave!" it was more of an observation than a question.

Narrowing her eyebrows, she glared up at the taller man. "Excuse me!" she declared angrily. "You've got some nerve! Kidnapping me like that when I was lost in the middle of…" she trailed off as she saw him looking her up and down. She felt like eye candy out on display in a windowshop.

"Odd," Kagome heard him murmur, "You look a bit plainer in person. And who would've thought that you'd have such an attitude."

"What the heck are you talking about!?" Kagome asked incredulously.

The man looked up and smirked at her, showing off his very sharp canines and locking her gaze with his striking blue eyes, "You, Kikyou."

Bad move.

Kagome's eye twitched. Clenching her fists, she tried to count to ten and regain her composure.

She only reached six.

"ARGH!! WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET IT THROUGH ALL YOU PEOPLE'S THICK SULLS!!" she shrieked in outrage. "My name is Kagome!! KA-GO-ME!!" 

Kouga looked dumbfounded. "Not Kikyou…?" he asked uncertainly. Kagome shook her head furiously.

With lightning speed reflexes, he darted out and grabbed her wrist, dragging her away from Houjo and over to a grassy ledge overlooking the river the waterfall spilled into. Stumbling, Kagome did her best to keep up with his fast-pace. Finally, he thrust her onto the ground.

Getting right down to business, he crouched down to her eye-level, "If you're not Kikyou, then why were you in these woods?" he asked intently. Scooting back to put some distance between the two of them, Kagome placed her hands on her hips in an effort to look more independent. However, it was hard for her to look intimidating when she was the one stuck on her butt.

"The forest doesn't belong to you! I can go in there if I want!"

He eyed her suspiciously before a light bulb seemed to go off in his head. "I got it! You're Kikyou's sister aren't you?"

Sighing, Kagome nodded. Kouga began looking at her in a new light, which caused Kagome to shift uncomfortably.

"I knew I'd heard that names somewhere. Well, I think I like you better than I woulda liked Kikyou anyways! You're cuter and sure to be much more fun!"

Kagome wasn't sure what to say to this remark, so she just didn't say anything at all.

"So," Kouga crossed his arms, "I shall make you my woman!"

Now _this_ Kagome had something to say to.

            "You can't just declare me 'your woman'!" she scoffed exasperatedly. "Besides, I already have someone I like! And," she added as an afterthought, "he's really strong! So when he finds out that you've kidnapped me, he's gonna come up here and save me!"

            Kouga looked unphased. "Really now? Well, no big deal. I could use a good fight. You say he'll be here soon? Well, if he's not here by noon tomorrow, then you're gonna go ahead and marry me anyways. It's a good thing I got that priest booked for the next few days."

            Kagome really hadn't expected this. Noon tomorrow? She looked up to the sky, it was already starting to get dark! And she had her doubts about Inuyasha even coming after her at all! Wait…

            "A priest?" she asked, "You've got a priest here? Were you planning on forcing my sister to marry you?"

            Kouga grinned wolfishly at her. "Yah, that Houjo guy's the priest," Kagome remembered the brown-haired man from earlier.

'So that's what they hired him for,' she thought to herself.

 "My gang and I had planned on kidnapping your sister, but then you turned up looking so much like her and we thought she'd just fallen into our arms. Oh well, like I said, you're a much better catch than Kikyou!" he winked at her. Kagome couldn't help but blush at this obvious complement.

            "Come on, it's getting dark," he gestured to the sky, "You're gonna sleep in my cave tonight. Clearly those bozos I ordered to guard you didn't do a very good job. I can't have you wandering off now can I?"

            Standing up, Kagome toddled off after Kouga. Would Inuyasha come in time? She would just have to hope for the best…

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Author's Note: ^_^ Kinda short, I know. But hey, at least it's an update huh? Poor Kagome, always mixed up in her sister's affairs and being jostled around from one kidnapper to the next! Please review!! If I get a lot of praise then I might just have an update out by next weekend! ^_~


	12. Preperations

Author's Note: Yay! I updated this weekend just like I promised! See? All your wonderful praise really does make me work faster! Read on and enjoy, it's definitely longer than the previous chapter!

Disclaimer: Although I have tons of Inu merchandise…I…*sob*…don't own the real guy…T_T

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**Mistaken Identity**

Chapter 12

_Preperations___

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            The waterfall continued to roar outside of the cave, reverberating off of the walls in a dull echo. Kagome rolled over onto her other side and opened her eyes. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get comfortable.

            She sighed and sat up, leaning back on her hands. The wolf skins Kouga had given her as makeshift pillows and blankets were very warm and the fur was deep and soft, but the stone floor still managed to remain cold and hard no matter how much padding she had. Dropping her head back, Kagome absentmindedly eyed the ceiling.

            'I wonder what time it is…' she thought to herself. It felt like she'd been up for hours. Kouga had dropped off to sleep in what seemed like minutes, and he was the only other one in the cave.

            He was being quite decent to her, not ordering her around much, or anything. And he had agreed to sleep on the other side of the cave, much to Kagome's relief. Still…she hoped Inuyasha would get there in time. No matter how nice Kouga was, she didn't want to be forced to marry him, or anyone else for that matter.

            Shaking her head, she got to her feet and crept past Kouga's apparently sleeping form. However, when her foot passed his head, his eye cracked open, following her progress. His body tensed as he saw her heading for the cave exit, but relaxed again when she simply sat against the entrance wall and gazed up at the moon, her legs drawn up to her chest and her arms clamped around them to ward off the cold.

            Kagome, still unaware of her silent watcher, frowned up at the glistening stars and wondered. Did her mother miss her? She didn't care much about what Kikyou thought, sometimes she doubted she had feelings or emotions anyways. But her mother…

            Kagome sighed again and watched a silent shadow fly across the sky and over the treetops - probably some nocturnal bird.

            "Lucky," Kagome mumbled enviously. "Whenever things get too rough, you can just fly off and start over again." Kagome knew where she'd fly off to if she had the chance. She'd go find Inuyasha.

            Kagome played around with that fantasy for a moment, imagining his face when he saw her fly down from the starry sky like a wingless angel. She gave a small smile and stretched her arms out above her head to try and relieve them of some of their soreness. 

            The idea of trying to run away flitted across her mind for a second, but she quickly ditched that idea when she thought about how easily Kouga could probably catch up with her again. She didn't much want to get on the bad side of a demon, no matter how nice he'd been to her.

Maybe she should try to sleep again. The cool night air had cleared her head, and as she stood up, a wave of dizziness rushed over her.

            So with shaky steps, she traipsed over to her blankets and snuggled into them, content for the moment.

            Unknown to her, Kouga had closed his eyes again. More than just satisfied that Kagome hadn't tried to escape, he was glad that she had finally smiled again.

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            "I can't believe she's still asleep!"

            "She _is _a human, maybe they need more sleep…?"

            "They can't possibly sleep this much! She's been out for well over ten hours!"

            "True, if she sleeps much longer, Kouga will have to push the wedding back a little."

            Kagome stirred in her sleep and tried to shut out the voices interrupting her dreams. Why couldn't they go away and let her finish up her beauty sleep?! Reluctantly, she opened her eyes only to be greeted by two other pairs of staring eyes not more than a foot away from her face.

            "GAH!!" she shrieked, flinging herself back to escape the eyes.

            "Oh, good! You're awake!"

            Kagome rubbed her eyes so that she could clearly see who had given her such a rude awakening. To her surprise, it was Mohawk-Man and his friend: her guards from earlier who had been more interested in their card game than guarding her…not that she had minded much.

            "What's the big idea?" she ground out, only half-angry. Her other half was still asleep.

            "Kouga wants us to get you ready for the wedding!" they informed her matter-of-factly.

            "But what if Inuyasha comes? Then I won't be getting married to anyone…" she pointed out.

            The two wolf demons shrugged carelessly. "Kouga doubts he'll show up, and even if he does, Kouga will beat him to a bloody pulp!"

            Kagome put her hands on her hips indignantly. "Humph," she snorted. "Besides, I can get myself ready myself." It was true; she'd had to do a lot of things herself with all of the attention on Kikyou.

 That and the fact that she didn't want two guys who looked like they'd never used a brush or comb in their life to manage her hair on her possible-wedding-day thankyouverymuch!

            The two exchanged uneasy glances before hesitantly agreeing with her.

            "Alright then, I'm going to need to take a bath, do my hair, get clothes," she prattled on, ticking the items off on her fingers. Hey, if this was going to happen, then it would happen her way! Besides, if worse came to worse, there was always divorce…she really hoped it wouldn't come down to that.

            Mohawk-Man shook his head. "Kouga already has your dress, and what's wrong with your hair the way it is?"

            Kagome sweat dropped, noting her matted, just-rolled-out-of-bed hair out of the corner of her eye. "This is a great example of why you're not going to be helping me," she mumbled exasperatedly.

            The two men exchanged confused looks. "Well…" Mohawk-Man's friend trailed off, "I suppose you could bathe in the waterfall pool…"

            "Great! It's settled then!" Kagome got to her feet. "And where's my dress?"

            Mohawk-Man handed her a parcel wrapped in brown cloth and tied with a thin rope. "But I warn you, the waterfall's kinda-"

            "Nope! I'll be fine! Really, thanks!" Kagome called, already halfway out the door.

            The other guy shrugged half-heartedly, "Can't say you didn't try."

            Mohawk-Man nodded uncertainly, "I know _I_ wouldn't set foot in that freezing water for anything!"

            The two gave each other conspiratorial looks before agreeing,

            "Must be a girl thing…"

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            Inuyasha cursed furiously as he stepped on yet another pointy rock or splinter of wood. The stench of wolves drenching the area didn't help to improve his mood much either. He had almost lost Kagome's scent in all of the wolf smells that had seized his senses, but he had just managed to hang on to the one familiar scent that acted as his guide.

            Crouching down, he leaped up into the high, spread branches of a tree and scanned the area with his sharp eyes. His sensitive ears twitched as they picked up a dull roaring sound.

            "A waterfall?" he asked to no one in particular. He was getting kind of thirsty…

            So with an agile jump, Inuyasha hurdled through the trees. As he neared the waterfall, the wolves' odor grew stronger, and he growled subconsciously.

            At last, the tree-line came to and end and, peering through the leafy branches, Inuyasha looked upon a camp. A wolf camp. Every stinking wolf in there seemed to be doing something, obviously they were extremely busy.

            Turning his head away, he tried to sift through the smells to find Kagome's unique scent, but was unable to. Shaking his head, Inuyasha prepared to leap away and continue his search. As long as the wolves hadn't bothered Kagome, then he had no quarrel with them.

            However, it was then that he heard a high pitch, feminine screech coming from the base of the waterfall. Flinching back from the loud noise, it took him only a few moments to recognize that familiar voice….

            Kagome.

            She was in trouble!!

            Wait…if she was by the waterfall, then she must have been taken captive by these wolves. If he wanted to save her then he needed a well-thought-out plan. He paused for a moment, contemplating his options.

            "Oh hell!" he muttered before opting for the simple plan of barging out into the open and hoping for the best. Darting through the trees, he reached the waterfall and flew out of the forests' cover, making his presence known.

            Scanning the rocky ledges and clear, blue water, he saw that there was nothing else there aside from a shivering girl and a brown parcel. He wasn't really looking at the parcel, however, because it was all he could do to not stare outright at the girl, who had been trying to bathe and, go figure, was naked.

            In the end, Kagome simply let out a louder scream and threw herself into the freezing water in order to better cover herself up.

            Popping just her head out, she hissed, "Inuyasha! What are you doing!?"

            Inuyasha looked dumbfounded. "Keh!" he ground out irritably, trying to cover up the blush staining his cheeks.

            Kagome narrowed her eyes, "You little peeper, you!! Go away! I'm trying to take a bath!"

            Inuyasha bristled, "Hey, I'm here to save you, girl! I'm not going to just come back later after you're finished washing up!"

            "Oh yes you are!"

            "Oi!" came a new voice from the cliff overlooking the waterfall. Kagome groaned at her misfortune, as Kouga peered down over the ledge and took in the strange scene.

            There was his bride-to-be, crouched as low in the water as she could go, and there was a white-haired, dog-eared guy glaring up at him scornfully.

            "Who the hell are you?" Inuyasha called up to the new guy.

            Kouga glared, "My name is Kouga! What do you think you're doing with my woman, dog-terd?!"

            Inuyasha squinted at Kouga in disbelief, "Your what…?" He turned on Kagome, "His _what_!"

            Kagome giggled nervously, "Eh…Inuyash! I'm not really his woman! See, you had until noon to-"

            "So!" Kouga cut in, "You must be Inuyasha! Well, if you're ready, I'm going to fight you for Kagome…and win!"

            Inuyasha growled and curled his clawed fingers into a fist, "Who do you think you are?!" he yelled up in rage. "You have no idea who you're messing with!"

            Kouga smirked, "Kagome is mine! She'll learn to like me best as soon as you're out of the picture."

            Kagome glanced at Inuyasha nervously, seeing if he had caught that implied hint on her feelings, but he looked too livid to really process anything besides the fact that this Kouga guy needed his ass kicked.

            "She's mine! I had her first!" No matter how childish this sounded, Kagome couldn't help but blush. Here she was, minding her own business as she tried, unsuccessfully, to take a bath, when two guys popped up, both having kidnapped her, and started arguing over who she belonged to. She didn't no whether to be angry or flattered.

            "Prepare yourself, dog-terd!"

            "You'll wish you'd never been born!"

            Kagome sensed a fight coming and called out meekly from her shivering position in the water, "Maybe we could just talk this over…?"

            The two men ignored her.

            Kagome sighed and mumbled, "Maybe not." She watched Kouga and Inuyasha glaring at one another, each waiting for the other to start with the first attack. Realizing just how distracted they were, Kagome seized her chance and snuck out of the icy water. Grabbing the brown package, she quickly opened it and, keeping one eye on the two arguing men, slid into it.

            It was only then that she noticed that Kouga wasn't wearing his normal wolf skin and armor. Clearly he had dressed up for the wedding. Although he was still wearing a wolf skin around his waist, the normal dirty brown one had been replaced by a jet black skin that had been brushed until it shined. Kagome absently wondered if he had simply died his first one or gotten a completely new one.

He also wore a loose black shirt with a V-neck cut halfway down his chest, and it flapped lightly with the breeze. However, he was still barefoot with his hair tied in a tight pony-tail and looked perfectly capable of fighting in his new clothing.

            Looking down at herself, she noted that the dress she wore was very soft and comfortable, obviously the makers had taken into mind the warm climate. It was all white except for a cream-colored, six-inch-wide ribbon that tied around her waist ending in a huge bow in the back, similar to a kimono's obi, and the dress had no sleeves. The front was cut in a scoop neck and remained open in the back. Below the ribbon flowed the delicate bottom of the dress to almost her knees. The hem was purposefully uneven, but seemed to be cut in an alternating pattern of long and medium lengths which swished when she twirled in a circle. Truly, the dress was quite beautiful, even it wasn't a very traditional one for a wedding.

            Suddenly, she heard an animalistic growl and whirled around to see Kouga and Inuyasha pounce upon each other in swift fury.

            Gasping in horror, she tried to avert her gaze so as not to witness such awful fighting. But she couldn't bring herself to look away. The only thing that processed in her mind was that Inuyasha might get hurt.

            And it was all her fault.

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Author's Note: Sorry for the cliffhanger! I couldn't help myself, we hadn't had one of these in awhile! I hope you guys were able to picture the wedding outfits okay…I'm not the best at describing clothing. Please review, and I'll do my best with an update next weekend! ^_^


	13. Go Fish

A/N: Hey Guys! Thanks so much for all your patience and reviews! Ya'll are the best! ^_^ I've got a ton of new plot ideas I want to start writing, but I'm holding them off until I'm closer to the end of this one! *determined face* I _will_ finish this story!!

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

A special thanks goes out to KagomeHikari8 for that awesome picture she sent me and all the wonderful praise she's showered me with! Thanks girl!

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Mistaken Identity

Chapter 13

Go Fish…

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            Kagome stood, frozen to the spot, as Kouga and Inuyasha fought it out near the forest edge. No one had landed an attack yet; they simply dodged around each other like well-choreographed dancers, Kouga more nimbly than Inuyasha.

            "See, mutt? You're no match for me!" Kouga bragged, aiming a kick at Inuyasha's head.

            "Keh! You haven't even hit me yet, you wimpy wolf!" Inuyasha called back with a smirk as he leaped aside to avoid being hit.

            With a mighty lunge, Kouga leapt high into the air and dove down at Inuyasha, landing a smashing punch on his left shoulder. Inuyasha staggered back from the blow, but managed to rake his sharp claws across Kouga's chest – ripping the clothes replacing his armor with deep scratches.

            Glaring fiercely at the other, the two stood panting for a few moments to regain their breath. The peace didn't last long, however, when Inuyasha whirled towards Kouga, who raced forward as well, and the combat was resumed again. Neither one seemed to be paying any attention to their own personal health as they concentrated completely on damaging the opponent.

            Kagome's mouth was agape in horror as blood began splattering the ground in tiny, red droplets.

            "St…stop…," she whispered in an effort to end the violence. Of course, she wasn't heard over the battle cries and hisses of pain. Kagome blinked back tears as she watched Inuyasha take an especially painful kick to the stomach.

            "Stop…," she tried again, a little more forcefully. Once again, she was ignored as the fight grew steadily worse. A crowd was beginning to form on the waterfall's cliff as Kouga's tribe gathered round to watch their leader. Occasional boos and cheers sounded when a particularly tricky move was executed. 

Kagome was disgusted at it all. How could they just sit and watch, and even _encourage_ them to hurt each other was beyond her.

            Her own anxiety was nearing breaking point: there was only so much a girl unaccustomed to bloody fights could take.

            "_Stop_!" she yelled, finally, in a voice that broke with emotion. "Please! Stop…"

            Inuyasha and Kouga paused, glancing towards Kagome with questioning looks. "What the hell, Kagome? I was just about to beat him!" Inuyasha complained. But then he saw the tears flowing silently down her cheeks.

            Abandoning the battlefield, he ran over to Kagome and glared down at her. "What're you crying for?" he asked, desperately trying to stifle the worry he felt from entering his voice.

            Frowning up at him, Kagome scowled. "How can you even ask that?! You're getting hurt! And so is Kouga! You guys are so incredibly stupid!"

            Inuyasha gawked at her. "That's it? You're crying because of these little cuts? That coward could never hurt me!"

            Kagome began sobbing again, "Idiot!" she cried, poking a purple bruise already blossoming on his cheek. Inuyasha yelped in surprise and recoiled back, clutching a hand to his abused face.

            "What was that for?!"

            "See! You _are_ hurt!"

            "Stupid girl…" Inuyasha muttered in annoyance. "I would've been fine if you hadn't jabbed it!"

            "Men and their pride!" she ground out, flinging her hands up in the air and turning on her toe to stalk off.

            "Don't worry Kagome!" Kouga called after her, in what he must have felt was reassurance. "I'll kill him for you and then you'll never have to put up with him again!"

            Kagome sprang back around, looking far less than reassured. "No! I don't _want_ you guys to fight! Especially over me! Geez, if you guys have a score you want to settle that badly then figure out a way to do it without murdering each other!" 

Kouga looked confused. "You mean…no fighting…?"

Kagome sighed with irritation. "Look, why don't you ju-"

"Kouga!!" she was interrupted my Mohawk-Man and company dashing up to their leader. "There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Why? Did something happen, Hakkaku?" Kouga asked.

'Hakkaku…I guess Mohawk-Man _does_ have a name…' Kagome thought absentmindedly.

Holding up his deck of cards, Hakkaku explained, "Ginta and I thought you might want to play with us!"

Kagome almost fell over. They had been looking everywhere for him for _that_…?

Kouga cocked an eyebrow and a smirk spread across his face.

"Mutt!" he called in Inuyasha's general direction, gesturing him over with his hand.

Inuyasha scowled angrily. "What'd you call me?!" he bellowed, pouncing towards Kouga with every intention of bashing his head in. Kouga, however, easily side-stepped, and Inuyasha crashed past.

"Follow me," Kouga commanded.

"Yah right…I'm not taking any orders from you!" Inuyasha ground out while picking himself up off the ground.

Kouga smirked arrogantly. "So you're giving up? Kagome's mine? Always knew you were just a big chicken…"

That did it.

"Keh…" Dejectedly, he trailed off after Kouga. Avoiding Kagome's glares she kept shooting him for trying to attack Kouga again.

They reached a cave, the one Kagome had woken up in upon her arrival to Kouga's tribe. Hakkaku and Ginta were already there, speaking amiably to one another. They waved jovially to Kagome who smiled in spite of herself and gave a little wave back, much to Inuyasha's dismay, but before he had a chance to scold her, Kouga turned to him with a wide smirk.

"I happen to be the champion at Go Fish," he declared proudly.

"Congratulations." Inuyasha rolled his eyes sarcastically.

 '_This game's all about luck, dummy, you can't be an expert…' _ Inuyasha thought to himself. 

Kouga, however, didn't seem to catch it and simply ignored him.

"So, we're going to play for Kagome!"

Said girl sputtered indignantly. "You're playing _cards_ for me!? Don't be ridiculous!" She looked meaningfully to Hakkaku and Ginta for some back-up, but they had already starting dealing the cards.

Kagome sighed and sunk to the ground in exasperation, muttering conspiratorially to herself.

"Hey!! I see you trying to hide those cards!"

"What the hell are you talking about! You're the one planning to cheat! I can tell!"

This was going to be a loooooong game….

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Kagome's assumption turned out wrong in two ways.

One, the game started innocently enough, but quickly became a competition full of shifty eyes and accusing glares. If truth be told, they were acting like two year olds.

Second…well, the 'game' certainly wasn't going to be lasting much longer…

"What are you trying to pull? That's not a match!"

"Freak! You just don't want to lose!"

"Are you blind?! That's a six!"

"It's a nine!"

"Six!"

"Nine!"

"Count the friggin' diamonds! It's a six!"

The two were now on their feet and in each other's faces, Kagome patiently sitting on the sidelines – content to let them settle the dispute themselves as long as neither one attacked.

But of course, Inuyasha wasn't a man of words. Swinging his fist out, he caught Kouga across the jaw. It wasn't a very hard hit, Kouga was able to block it, but it didn't escape Kagome's frosty glare.

"Inuyasha! What have I told you about hitting?"

Inuyasha looked up at her easily. "Whoops! Guess it slipped…"

Kagome scoffed. "Suuuuuuuure…" Standing up, she smoothed her dress and announced, "I'm leaving! You two are impossible!" First, however, she glanced towards the card which had started the argument. "By the way…that _is_ a six…" before trouncing out of the cave and into the forest.

Inuyasha shot a triumphant smirk at Kouga, "I told you so!" before calling after Kagome to get her butt back here. She was already out of hearing range, though, as well as out of sight.

"Wait!" Kouga stopped him as he began to charge off after the runaway girl. "I can't follow her, because I have to stay with my tribe, but she's _my_ woman! You better not make any moves on her!"

Inuyasha scoffed. "I had her first, wolf!"

Kouga crossed his arms, "I bet she likes me better than you, anyways!"

Inuyasha ignored him and just leapt off.

"Tell Kagome that I'll check up on her sometime!!"

Inuyasha continued to ignore him as he sped off into the woods. He tried not to let what Kouga had said bother him. 

"Stupid wolf was probably just saying that!" he assured himself. But still…

_I bet she likes me better than you, anyways…_

He couldn't get those words out of his head…and he couldn't figure out why they made his head hurt so much…

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Author's Note: Poor Inu…well, not so much of a cliffhanger this time, huh? I'll do my best update ASAP!! Please review!!


	14. Youkai

Author's Note: Hey ya'll! I'm baaack! Sorry for the delay, been working on plans and first chappies of new stories and never got around to this one! But when friends started blackmailing me with forgotten clothing articles, I thought it was time to put out a new chappie. ;; Shame on me…Well, thanks for checking in and enjoy the chappie!

Tigeress: lol, I didn't even notice the fishy point. I guess you could call that a strange coincidence! I love hearing what the readers get from my story, sometimes it's things I don't even pick up, and I'm the one writing it! ;;

Disclaimer: Inu belongs to me…only in my own little world…

I just noticed that, even though I always used tab, it only shows up half of the time. Hope that doesn't confuse anyone!

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Mistaken Identity

Chapter 14

Youkai

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The sun was shining brightly through the patterned leaves of the trees, casting flickering spirals on the forest floor. A creek gurgled in and out of the many pines, birches, and saplings in a winding path, completely oblivious to where it ended up. Similar to how Kagome felt.

Wandering aimlessly down a well-worn path, she absently kicked a pebble along in front of her. A light breeze blew through her hair and rippled her dress with the soft caresses of nature.

"S'ppose I shoulda stuck around a little longer. Those two have probably murdered each other…" she thought ruefully, grimacing at the scene taking place in her head: little imaginary Kouga's and Inuyasha's running around trying to beat each other up. She giggled in spite of herself, before erasing the chibi forms of her friends from her mind and coming back to reality.

She really had no idea where she was going. Kagome had always been hopelessly unlucky when it came to directions or finding her way.

But she wasn't really worrying about that at the moment, because she had every faith that Inuyasha would turn up sooner or later and lead her back to their little farm. I mean, if he'd come this far out to save her from Kouga, then following her a short distance into the woods couldn't be that hard, right? Then again, maybe he was tired of tracking her all over the countryside. She was his big future jack-pot, though… Kagome shook her head to clear her thoughts and just dropped the subject all together; it wasn't worth getting a head-ache over. Unless he hadn't caught up with her by dark, that is.

_'No!'_ she thought furiously, _'I'm not going to think of Inuyasha at all! No matter what!' _her eyes softened as an image of the dog-eared hanyou popped up in her mind, "Or at least for the next five minutes…"

Ordering her mind to wander, she began picking the wildflowers and weeds that looked nice enough to pass off as flowers, growing abundantly along the path. Pretty soon, Kagome had several yellow buttercup necklaces, a blossoming, white crown, and fragrant, blue gems braided into her hair. She felt like a fairy, flitting in and out of the sunbeams, similar to a hummingbird through roses.

Giggling aloud, she spun in a circle, her arms outstretched and fingers reaching for the wind in an impossible attempt of catching it. Closing her eyes, Kagome slowed her spinning to a gentle swaying, picturing herself young and carefree again. Chasing fireflies with Souta and telling him they glowed because they were really hundreds of miniscule suns. Hunting for wild strawberries and honeysuckle while dodging the bees and gnats that would dart back and forth in front of her face. Feeling a thrilling rush of excitement when she got close enough to a furry, brown bunny to reach out and fondle those long, velvet ears. She held onto those memories like a lifeline, losing herself in them for a few moments, before lowering herself onto the leafy ground.

She had tried so hard not to think about Souta, Grandpa, her mother, and even Kikyou. But realization had just hit her. She missed them. She really, really did.

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Meanwhile, Inuyasha was missing someone too. Trees whizzed by in a blur as his mind loitered on a certain someone.

"Crazy girl…" he muttered, racing the wind in an effort to find the runaway girl. Gnats continuously flew into his face, opting to take the more direct route than swerving to avoid him. "Stupid bugs…" Inuyasha complained, again.

Sighing, he crouched down in preparation of an air-borne leap. However, halfway through his would-be graceful flight, something caught his eye. He pulled back from the sky and twisted to get a better look. Well, Inuyasha forgot to factor in gravity. The result was a crumpled mess of hanyou.

Grumbling, Inuyasha untangled his limbs, and propped his chin up with a clawed hand. The guilty object lay inches from his resting point, and he snatched it up with his free hand, examining it closely.

It was a collection of buttercups, braided together to form a simple necklace. Inuyasha sniffed it gingerly, the heavy floral scent almost covering her scent, but not quite. After all, he had become an expert at detecting her.

He grinned smugly, knowing he would catch sight of Kagome in a matter of minutes, as he crammed the make-shift jewelry into his haori's sleeve. Tacky as the traditional Japanese outfit may be, it was very comfortable and he was growing quite fond of it.

Racing off in the direction of her scent, he momentarily enjoyed the nature around him: the wind softly blowing back his hair, the trees swaying gently in time to a silent beat, Kagome's scent mingled with another youkai…

Inuyasha's mind jolted back to reality as the full extent of that last thought hit him. Another youkai! Dropping all caution, he sprinted ahead, concentrating solely on the task at hand…Kagome!

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Kagome sang quietly to herself as she trudged onwards through the forest. Her temporary depression had passed, and she had once again pushed her family into the back of her mind. She'd worry about them once she found the farm or Inuyasha, whichever came about first.

Her feet crunched on the tiny sticks and dry leaves, sore as anything, just plodding along. Kagome sighed, not only was she tired, but extremely bored. It wasn't easy, walking since this afternoon, slaving away under the burning sun in an effort to keep her cramping feet moving forward, step after step, in a seemingly never-ending course…rolling her eyes, Kagome shook her head. She could be such a drama queen.

Truthfully, she'd probably only been walking for an hour, give or take, and she wasn't really tired, just bored. Fascinating as the forest had first been to her innocent eyes, the scene had soon grown disinteresting, as each tree grew more alike the next, and every squirrel ranted territorially at her in the same manner as its neighbors.

You'd think that after being kidnapped twice, Kagome would be enjoying her momentary freedom, but she had grown accustomed to the daily adventures, and was eagerly awaiting the next one.

A low, feral growl made her come to a sudden halt. Glancing nervously around, she hadn't noticed how dense the trees and bushes really were, and just how gnarled each reaching branch was.

"Inuyasha…?" she called out softly. A pair of slitted grey eyes with dilated black pupils appeared through a break in the trees. Kagome gulped nervously. She knew for a fact from many sneaky side-long glances that Inuyasha's eyes were a striking gold, as far from this steel grey as could be.

She slowly backed away as the animalistic growl intensified. "Nice youkai…" she cooed softly, not really expecting a good result. There wasn't.

Okay…so maybe she didn't really want the next adventure to come so quickly…

She shot a pleading glance skyward, "Did I say adventure?" she giggled nervously, "Just kidding…" But apparently the youkai wasn't, because she heard its slow trudge moving towards her.

Painstakingly slowly.

Each thunderous step rustled the trees which seemed to bend away from the monster in an escape attempt, but to no avail, as their roots held firm.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the youkai made its appearance. An enormous badger, its head resting four feet in the air on a big, thick body, stomped towards Kagome. Its oversized canines hung over its lip as it growled ferociously at Kagome. Stout legs worked ferociously, bringing the creature to her at an alarming speed considering they're lack of height. Three inch claws curled out from under each paw, dirt caught under each, jammed under from everyday use, ending in deadly points that could easily cut through flesh.

Two angry black stripes cut down the badger's back in jagged lines, meeting at its nose and, for all appearances, giving it a fearsome glare to match its vicious attitude. Its eyes sharpened over their previous glaze and now bore into Kagome with intense hunger. The youkai radiated power - one swipe of its paw could smash a man's head in - its brute strength clearly shown in the way it moved and the confidence it sported.

Kagome stumbled backwards, her back thumping into an unrelenting tree, effectively ending her retreat. The badger youkai howled angrily at her as it reared up onto its hind legs and stood up to its full and considerable height. Kagome shrank back from the raging badger, flinching away from it and into the tree.

"Inuyasha…" she called, her voice quivering from nerves and not carrying very far. The badger crashed back to earth and resumed its previous stalking towards Kagome.

Kagome was paralyzed with fright as she mouthed Inuyasha's name over and over again, but no sound ever left her lips, each attempt more pathetic than the last.

Finally, the youkai was close enough for her to reach out and touch it, had she held such a desire to fondle the course, bristling fur. As it was, she didn't.

Human emotions are like a chain, one leading to the next. What starts as anxious butterflies and a faster pulse quickly becomes extreme fear which eventually leads to sheer panic, which was the stage Kagome dwelled on as the menacing youkai pulled its clawed paw back for the strike which would bring death to Kagome's unprotected, fragile body.

However, sheer panic brings bravery to even the most cowardly beings. The same held true for Kagome who let out an ear-splitting scream that left the badger faltering its blow and Kagome rolling to her left in a temporary escape.

"INUYASHA!!" she shrieked desperately, hoping against hope that her hero would come to her rescue just like in all the fairy tales.

And he did.

A blur of red announced his arrival as he bowled into the badger, knocking it off its feet and slashing its shoulder. The youkai let out a howl of pain and flung itself at Inuyasha who easily dodged the attack. Sliding from momentum, the youkai swung itself around, casting its mean eyes around for its red and silver target.

Inuyasha, who had used the distraction to his advantage, had leaped up into a tree and chose this moment to fall down upon the back of the unsuspecting badger. Slashing at the youkai's neck, Inuyasha prepared to, once again, spring away, but this time he wasn't fast enough. Whirling around, the badger youkai sunk its powerful teeth into Inuyasha's arm who cursed loudly, flinging the badger with all of his might and slamming it into a nearby tree. A sickening crack resounded from the collision and the badger slumped to the ground, its neck twisted in an unreasonable direction.

To Kagome, it was as if a camera had just been switched off from slow-motion and she rushed to Inuyasha's side. He had sunk to one knee, clutching his arm, but grinning ruefully.

He smirked at Kagome, even though his eyes shined with pain. "Got him."

Kagome wanted to shake him for being so stupid, yell at him for scaring her, hug him for saving her. She chose the third option, and flung her arms around his neck, sobbing onto his unwounded shoulder.

"Oh, I was so scared!" she sniffed.

He awkwardly patted her shoulder. "Keh, you should know that I'll always protect you!"

Kagome's eyes widened slightly as she wiped away a tear, before softening and smiling. "Thank you. But I wasn't scared of the youkai," He raised an eyebrow skeptically at her and she narrowed her eyes and blushed slightly, "Well, not as much as I was scared for you!"

Now it was Inuyasha's turn to blush. He quickly turned from her and keh'd.

Kagome, sensing his embarrassment, got down to business. Reaching for his arm, she pushed up the haori's sleeve and examined the wound, ignoring Inuyasha's persistent swears that he was perfectly fine. Two bleeding holes marked Inuyasha's injury where the youkai's more prominent teeth had punctured. Luckily, they weren't deep.

Reaching behind her, she ripped off part of the obi-like ribbon encircling her waist and tied it tightly around Inuyasha's arm in make-shift bandage style.

Inuyasha screwed his face up in a grimace to cover his embarrassment at her close proximity. "Keh! You call that tending a wound?! That flimsy thing wouldn't help shit!" he growled, turning his head away and hoisting himself to his feet.

Kagome only shook her head and smiled knowingly, standing up as well, and brushing off the seat of her dress. Stepping in place behind the hanyou, who had his nose turned up and his arms crossed in true Don't-Mess-With-Me style, Kagome couldn't hold back a smile.

He had come back for her!

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"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Kagome asked for what seemed the tenth time.

Needless to say, Inuyasha wasn't too happy with her lack of faith.

Sending her an exasperated glare, he ground out, "Look, girl, just because you were going in the completely wrong direction, and now we have twice as much ground to cover and it happens to be _taking awhile_, doesn't mean I don't know where we're going!!"

"Well excuse me, _your highness_, just because you know everything about these woods, doesn't mean I do! And it's not like you're exceptionally eager to clue me in or anything!"

"I don't have to tell you anything, hostage!" he pointed out, not even breaking strides or turning around to face her.

Kagome threw her hands on her hips and pouted, before realizing he wasn't paying any attention to her and, rolling her eyes, dropped her angry stance. "Let's play a game!" she suggested.

Inuyasha sent her a sidelong glance, and grunted in response.

"How about…" Kagome trailed off, thinking. She looked around and spotted a huge oak tree about thirty feet, give or take, up ahead. "See that tree?" she asked, catching hold of Inuyasha's sleeve and pulling him to a halt, gesturing to the tree.

"You know this is only going to make the trip take longer," he grumbled, scowling down at her. Kagome ignored him.

"We're gonna race! First one to that tree wins."

Inuyasha scoffed, "Ha! Why bother, you know I'll win!"

Faking a glare at him, Kagome continued, "Well, that's where the game part comes in! We do rock-paper-scissors," she demonstrated each symbol for him, "And whoever wins each round gets to take a step forward! Eventually, one of us will get to the tree!" She beamed at him happily, and Inuyasha couldn't help but smile slightly in return.

Catching him by the hand, she pulled him over to a boulder. "We'll start here!"

"Yah yah, just don't cry too much when I beat you by a mile!" Inuyasha exclaimed cockily, his manly arrogance kicking in at the prospect of a contest.

"Right, as long as you don't have a tantrum when you're beat by a girl!" was her retaliation as she elbowed him lightly in the stomach.

Both held out a fist and banged it three times on their palm, chanting 'rock, paper, scissors, shoot!'

"Aha!" cried Kagome excitedly, as she cut through Inuyasha's paper and took a step forward.

Inuyasha frowned, "I'm just warming up!"

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

"Woohoo!" Kagome yelled again, dancing around on the spot and leaping forward again.

Seven rounds later, Kagome was halfway to the tree, while Inuyasha had only moved twice.

"You better catch up soon, Inuyasha! Or I won't even be able to see you anymore!"

"Hey! Shut-up, you! I'm gonna have a great comeback!"

Kagome scoffed and prepared for the next round.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

Both flicked their hands out, and quickly scanned the opposite's fingers for their sign.

Inuyasha smirked, waving his paper-hand at Kagome's rock-fist. "Ha! Take that!"

"You're still way behind Inuyasha! You'll never catch up!" she shouted back confidently.

However, eleven round later proved differently. Inuyasha was one step away from the finish line, and Kagome had at least five to go.

Laughing evilly, Inuyasha shot an arrogant smile to Kagome. "I got this one in the bag!"

"Well," she scrounged for an excuse, "You're legs are longer! It takes you less steps to get there!!"

"Yeah right! You're practically covering three steps with your ridiculous leaps!"

Sighing, Kagome shook her head. "Shouldn't have suggested this game," she mumbled to herself, "This is all gonna go to his head!"

"Ready to lose?" he called. A muscle twitched on Kagome's forehead, and she clenched her eyes shut.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" they chorused, one with enthusiasm, one resentfully.

Cracking open an eye, Kagome slowly looked over at Inuyasha's hand.

Scissors.

Grimacing, she glanced down at her own hand, just to make sure.

Yep, that was definitely paper.

"Dang it," she muttered to herself, noting Inuyasha's victorious screeches as he danced victoriously about the enormous oak.

"Who's the king, Kagome?! That's right! Can't touch this!" he turned to smirk at her, only to see her dashing at him. "What the-"

He was cut off, rather brutally, as Kagome crashed headlong into him. They rolled across the forest floor, finally coming to a halt.

Kagome was pinning Inuyasha to the ground, one of her hands tangled in his hair. Laughing out loud, she brought her second hand out from under a pile of leaves to help herself up to a sitting position on his chest.

Inuyasha grinned up at her. Propping himself up on his elbows, he gave Kagome a fearful look. "Please, Kagome, let me go!"

Kagome mocked a glare at him, and deepened her voice. "Never! You're my prisoner until you can complete the impossible task!"

Feigning a gasp, Inuyasha begged, "What task could I possibly do for you?"

"Hmmmm," Kagome looked around, thinking. Snapping her fingers, she pointed to a tree overflowing with pearly white flowers. "You must bring me the most fragrant flower from the highest point on that tree!"

Putting on a brave face, Inuyasha picked Kagome up, nestling her to him. "I'll do my best," he whispered, before bounding into the tree, Kagome clinging to his haori in delight.

"I'm flying!" she squealed as Inuyasha leaped higher and higher. Surrounded by soft blossoms in the tangled web of the ancient tree, Kagome felt like she was in heaven. She closed her eyes blissfully, feeling more content with the world than she had in a long while.

"Well, is this one good enough?" Inuyasha asked gruffly, immensely embarrassed, judging from his scarlet face.

Kagome's smile spread from ear to ear as she accepted the gorgeous flower and slid it behind her ear.

"Thank you, my savior," she smiled shyly, continuing the game while looking up at her hero.

"Am I free now?" he murmured in her ear in a voice that sent shivers down her spine.

She nodded, still grinning. She had never felt so safe and happy in her life, held close in Inuyasha's arms like a puzzle piece.

"Then let's go home." And he bounded off through the trees, the sunlight pouring down on him as he clutched the fragile girl to him. She had accepted him as he was. Not looking at him as half-human or half-demon. Just Inuyasha. And for that, she was more his savior than he could ever be hers.

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Author's Note: Whew! Longest chapter in awhile! I'm actually very satisfied with the way this turned out. We had some action and fluff! Hope you guys enjoyed! Please remember to review!!


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